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IU will have to figure out their scholarship situation again next year. Vonleh committed to Indiana last night.

There's no way IMO that two major conference teams with good schedules would get jumped by a team with 1 loss. Especially one that won't end up having much better of a schedule if it's better at all. ND isn't in a conference. Of course. That was just shorthand for saying a team that a pollster is naturally going to give more respect to (as opposed to Boise or TCU in previous years). ND isn't in a conference, but they play the same strength of schedule as teams in major conferences, so they are treated the same.

There's no way IMO that two major conference teams with good schedules would get jumped by a team with 1 loss. Especially one that won't end up having much better of a schedule if it's better at all.

As you said, he's on pace to finish 21 catches behind Harrison. He would have to average over 10 catches a game the rest of the season, and even with his monster start he's only had one game of double digit catches so far this year. I don't see that happening. Welker and Harvin probably have slightly better chances of catching Harrison this year, but I don't see anyone getting particularly close. And I see that soccer beat me to it!

There'd be no hype for that game. None at all. Colts still aren't making the playoffs though -- five more road games. I'm not quite that definitive about their playoff chances. The last playoff spot will likely be a 9-7 team. Two winnable road games (at Jac and at KC). Split those, win the two home games they're favored in (BUF, TEN) and they are just looking to steal one more at that point to probably get in. It could come down to if Houston rests starters or not in week 17. If I had to go between the Colts and the field, I'd take the field. But I have a hard time picking out a 6th playoff team. San Diego has struggled outside their division, and none of the 3-5 teams are good bets to suddenly take off. Miami is probably the best of the lot, and the Colts have now a lead and the tiebreaker on them. Of course, the Colts could easily lose a few close games going down the stretch and only win 7 as well.

Opt out clause. But true, Taj would probably be gone. Plus you have Mirotic supposedly arriving around then. It could get interesting. The Bulls are well positioned for 2014. No big commitments. Deng coming off the books. Presumably an amnesty of Boozer (you guys can cry about Reinsdorf it this doesn't happen). I wonder if they could add Love, another big FA, and Mirotic as well to go with Noah and Rose. Love can't opt out until the summer of 2015. I doubt the Bulls would have had enough money to add Love and another big FA even under that scenario. Rose and Noah are taking up over half the cap in 2014 (unless the cap suddenly goes way up). Add in the cheap players on the roster+Mirotic+cap hold for a first round pick and there probably isn't enough room for something of that magnitude.

That's absolutely true.. For example, when Colts-Patriots was getting huge ratings, in 2005 they were on Monday Night football on ABC. The next year MNF and SNF had switched, and that game was on NBC the next 3 times they played at night on SNF. ESPN has always gotten the lesser priority of matchups whether they were broadcasting SNF or MNF.

I was going to but after doing a bit of research, I realized I thought Kansas State's schedule was harder than it actually was. If both win out, I'd say Kansas St. should probably be ranked ahead. Based on... The one thing I could think of is that KState has had less close calls than ND has so far. ND will have played a better schedule. Not ridiculously better, but definitely better. So ND will have the schedule advantage, while KState has been a little more impressive against their opponents.

They can't pay him. So they'd rather get 80 or 90 cents on the dollar now then risk losing him next year. It will hurt them this year, but having those extra picks will help keep their pipeline going to keep building behind Durant/Westbrook/Ibaka. It's unfortunate that the Thunder become the first casualty of the new luxury tax system. Hopefully the rules against sign and trades by luxury tax teams and other similar rules that go into place next season will start slowing down the big markets as well. Would the luxury tax penalties have been that onerous over the life of the contract? I thought I read somewhere that, though, high, they were well within OKC's ability to pay. There really isn't enough known about their revenues and the rest of the plan to hazard much of a guess on that. They would have been in the luxury tax for sure with Perkins and quite possibly without him (either by having to pay him through amnesty or finding a way to dump him), that much is certain. They've at least claimed they couldn't do that, and now it looks like they really meant it.

They can't pay him. So they'd rather get 80 or 90 cents on the dollar now then risk losing him next year. It will hurt them this year, but having those extra picks will help keep their pipeline going to keep building behind Durant/Westbrook/Ibaka. It's unfortunate that the Thunder become the first casualty of the new luxury tax system. Hopefully the rules against sign and trades by luxury tax teams and other similar rules that go into place next season will start slowing down the big markets as well.

I hope the coverage doesn't focus on the holding/INT. One clear call that was just made late, and one call that may or may have been right, but even if it was overturned ND is still in a great position to win the game. So nice to see Brindza make a huge kick there. ND is going to need to be able to trust him to get them out of a tight spot or two down the line.

In the NFL, that wouldn't be an INT (since his hands come off the ball for a second after it hits the ground, which is a pretty clear sign of no longer having possession). Not sure if the college rule is the same or not.

I would guess Oregon. They will probably finish 4th in the computers though in that scenario so Oregon would have to keep a solid lead in the polls, which they might be able to do with their strong schedule down the stretch. Obviously KState is ahead of them right now (and will be even further ahead of them after this week), but that will likely change as the weeks go on and Oregon slowly rises in the computers. Right now voters have KState clearly ahead of ND, but in that scenario I think they would be more split which would not help either of them catch Oregon.

I definitely agree with the thought of selling high on Gore. Too many question marks for me. Little bit of an injury history (and banged up a little bit right now), somewhat limited amount of touches at times, and some bad matchups. He faces 3 of the top 9 run defenses during the fantasy playoffs, although one of those is the Seahawks D he just shredded. Fitzgerald doesn't have a good fantasy playoff matchup schedule either. As far as which deal you should be targeting, I'm not sure about that. I would lean towards Forte and Jackson, but I'm not quite sure why. It probably depends on how highly you think of McFadden at this point because if he can figure out his problems, his schedule is fairly easy..but he hasn't shown that burst yet and is probably still the biggest injury risk among the 4.

Moreover, Freeman was in the pocket when the shove was made, so technically it was illegal contact on top of it. Right, any way you look at it, it's a blown call. It has to at least be illegal contact When they had Pereira on TV afterword he said that Freeman was out of the pocket when the shove occurred so there was no illegal contact, and that since the shove was legal the receiver still can't be the first one to touch it when he reestablishes himself. I can't see the replay right now to see if he was right about when the shove occurred.

It will be week 8 before we finally have our 3rd noon Sunday start of the year. So far we've had 2 Noon Sundays (Colts, Rams), a noon 3PM (Jags), 2 MNF (Cowboys, Lions), a Thursday night game (Packers) and a bye. Then after 2 noon games we have 2 more primetime games in a row. The good news is that 5 of our last 6 games will be noon games with the other being a 3pm Until 1 of them gets flexed out and another moved to the late game. I was gonna say, I'm almost sure we'll get a game or two flexed (can they do more than one for a given team?)... Could definitely see the Minnesota game being one of those. The Green Bay game is absolutely getting flexed. The Green Bay game isn't likely to go anywhere. CBS has the doubleheader that week so it won't move to the 4:00 slot, and SNF has the 49ers at the Patriots so there will be no need for a replacement game there. My guess is that the week 12 Bears-Minnesota game stays where it is (although if New Orleans still has a bad record it could easily move into the 4:00 slot) and the week 14 Minnesota game has a decent possibly of moving to either 4:00 or the night game depending on how Detroit and New Orleans play up until then.

Obviously from an author who is high on him, but here is a report from middle of this year: http://motorcitybengals.com/2012/07/05/tigers-mid-season-top-30-prospects-15-11/ Looks like Sickels had him as one of the players receiving consideration for his top 20 at the end of last year, and obviously this year was a better year for him overall (with the only big blemish repeating the level). I've looked at 3 other smaller scouting reports, and they all say a fastball in the low 90's. I saw another scouting report that said his breaking ball is poor but that his change was good. Seems like a prospect between 15-30, basically another pitcher with a chance.

The thing I couldn't hear on the replay was if a whistle blew. But if you watch the referee's movements, they're already acting like the play is over before he scores. The side judge has already run way onto the field when he reaches the ball across. I would have thought they would have had to rule whistle/forward progress stopped based on that reason, but once it went to replay it easily could have been overturned.

Samardzija's NTC should be over with now. It was tied to the old contract, and the Cubs declined Samardzija's option last year for that contract.

No its not that crazy. I'm not sure they actually do that, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least considering the somewhat strong play, and the weak schedule. Plus you factor in Luck probably improving as the season progresses. Looking at the AFC, the teams that I think have no chance at the playoffs are Cleveland, Kansas City, Tennessee and Jacksonville. That leaves 9 teams to fight for 3 spots (assuming NE, BAL, HOU are locks). Those 9 teams are SD (3-2), CIN (3-2), PIT (2-2), IND (2-2), NYJ (2-3), BUF (2-3), MIA (2-3), DEN (2-3) and OAK (1-3). What a pack of mediocre to bad teams. I guess with a gun to my head I'd go SD (west), DEN and PIT. And the thing is, I don't like any of those 3 teams that much...they just aren't that good. It might not be crazy, but I'm still not expecting any more than five or six wins from the Colts. They lost at home to one of the worst teams in the NFL (Jacksonville). They've only played one road game and were dominated (though against a good team). Sure, they beat Green Bay but that was an emotional aberration, in my opinion, from Pagano's absence (don't think that can really be carried over week to week). The schedue isn't exactly murderer's row though, that's for sure. I wasn't surprised by the Jacksonville loss. The Colts still have in many parts the same defensive personnel that Jacksonville has run over for years, which is what has led to the endless number of close games with them. I'm not projecting 9. I'd guess 7 right now (2-3 against the rest of the division, 2-2 against the AFC East, 1-1 against Cleveland/Kansas City, 0-1 against Detroit). I could see 6 (with only 1 win against the East being the most likely scenario) but I don't think 5 is particularly likely at this point. There are too many teams left on the schedule who are on or maybe even below the Colts level to have a good chance of going 3-9 the rest of the way. They only have 3 likely playoff teams left on the schedule at this point.

I've been telling people all offseason not to expect more than 5 wins out of this Colts team, and now the horribleness of the AFC is making me wonder if they could be in contention for a playoff spot. They have played 3 home games already, which is a problem (and didn't play particularly well in their one road game). But they have already played three of the four NFC teams, their non-common games with the division are Cleveland and Kansas City, and one of their Houston games is week 17 when Houston might be resting starters. Am I crazy to think they could get to 9 with some average to good luck in close games?

I'm sure they'll flex some of the Bears games in the last few weeks. Unless the rule has changed this year because of the increased number of primetime slots, the Bears can only have 1 game flexed to Sunday night this year. A team gets a max of 6 primtetime games a year. And the only rule I've heard implemented this year was that every team has to be on primetime at least once. So they can flex one game, which they'll most likely do if the Bears are even close to a playoff spot. Maybe, although the Sunday night schedule is pretty strong this year. Only games I could see them replacing right now are week 14 and week 16. The Bears could fill one of those spots if they do end up getting flexed, but there are some other juicy games as well. It looks like week 12 and 14 are the only two weeks the Bears might move to 4:25, although neither week is really likely. And of course week 17 is completely up in the air as it usually is, but since the Bears play a likely non-playoff team in Detroit the odds are poorer for them to get a late slot.

I'm sure they'll flex some of the Bears games in the last few weeks. Unless the rule has changed this year because of the increased number of primetime slots, the Bears can only have 1 game flexed to Sunday night this year. A team gets a max of 6 primtetime games a year. And the only rule I've heard implemented this year was that every team has to be on primetime at least once.

Jags came into this game 30th against the run, 20th against the pass, no sacks since the opener, don't cause turnovers. They aren't very good. The Bears should be better than this. I'm not sure how healthy they are now, but the Jags defense has been really banged up since the start of the year. They were supposed to be very good when healthy.

Unless he gets hurt in the next season or so he'll get into the top 10 of receiving yards all time (after today should be 17th alltime at the moment), and has a decent shot of cracking the top 5. I'm not sure if he'll make the Hall of Fame because he had Peyton Manning for most of his career and a good Harrison for just over half of his career, but he's got a decently strong case.