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You know, I wanted Notre Dame to win today, but I don't feel bad at all that they lost because of what it did for Navy. Navy comes out every year and plays their heart out against Notre Dame, and they should have won 2 or 3 times in the last 12 years. They deserved this one so much, and I am too happy for them to be upset at all that ND lost. I don't know if that makes me a bad sports fan, but in this case I don't care. The postgame ceremony was touching as well. So congratulations to Navy, this day is yours and celebrate it.

Ok, now I'm confused. Walker has kicked a 40+ yard field goal against UCLA, so why not try him there? Now it looks like OT.

Because they get tired of losing to Michigan year in and year out so they come up with crazy theories about how the referees are biased for Michigan and that allows the fans of the other teams to sleep at night without thinking their team sucks. Rather than "You know, maybe our team just isn't that good." it's "We're better than Michigan but they just get all the calls and the referees favor them." ah good to see that our california friend follows the big ten closely and sees most of the conferences games. Bitching and moaning about penalties is a cop out. There are instances for both teams in which penalties could be called but don't. It's just convenient that every fan of another Big 10 team ONLY remembers the penalties that went against their team and don't remember a single instance in which a penalty called hurt Michigan. And they have happened. I guarantee it and don't need to have watched every Big 10 game to know it. I know you watch college basketball, would you say Duke gets a pretty good advantage from the referees? No more or less than any other team. People just remember the calls that favor Duke because they hate Duke. Explain to me how a jump shooting team shoots more free throws than anyone else. Specifically one that shoots mainly threes. Duke is one of the better teams in the nation and generally has a lot of good players. They play a lot of teams, especially out of conference, that aren't very good. Those teams generally don't have very good players. Good players are going to draw fouls against not very good players because those other players, you know, aren't very good. Right, so how come they still shoot more free throws when they play the just as talented teams in the ACC? Even though they shoot a majority of their shots from behind the three point line and play the most in your face defense of any team in that conference? Yeah, plus I just looked at their non-conference schedule and picked out 3 good teams who were better at getting the ball inside than Duke was last year. Georgetown, Indiana, and Gonzaga. You would expect those teams to dominate Duke on the free throw line. Here are the final totals combined for those 3 games: Duke-76 attempts, Opposition-38.

Notre Dame's defense hasn't stopped Navy all day long. They had to go for it otherwise Navy would run the clock out. I was surprised Weis actually did it, but I think it was the right move even when it was called. Wasn't that Notre Dame's first completion all half? I'd say the odds were better that they'd cost themselves the game with over 5 minutes to go thanks to the great field position they'd give up than to do what they did. Yeah, it was their first completion of the half, but it was also only their their 4th attempt of the half. They haven't had to pass at all because they have been running the ball right at Navy. It was certainly very risky, but when neither team had punted all game long, it didn't seem promising to punt it away. At best, you get the ball back with 4 minutes left and you cannot run the ball down the field like they just did. Plus, it's not like Navy can kick field goals (as shown in this game), so giving it to them on the 30 wasn't as risky because of that.

Notre Dame's defense hasn't stopped Navy all day long. They had to go for it otherwise Navy would run the clock out. I was surprised Weis actually did it, but I think it was the right move even when it was called.

I think Hill is actually in his best situation. He will be the first guy from the minor leagues called up if there is an injury, and Blanco is 38 and had a major injury last year. I doubt he'd get that much chance to be a backup anywhere else right now.

For a team that was supposed to finish 12th or lower in the Eastern Conference, I've been pleasantly surprised by the Pacers start. Their competition hasn't been the best (Washington and Miami without Wade) but that's not the worst competition you can have either. They've played really hard, and their running offense is the such a contrast from the Carlisle walk it up the floor and call a play offense. Two close wins is nice to see, even though there probably will be tough times ahead.

I thought Reyes swung at everything? He did when he came into the league. His walks have jumped from 27 in 2005 to 53 in 2006 to 77 in 2007.

It seems more and more likely that Harrison will miss the game. That would change the gameplan significantly without his threat on the field. Although Bob Sanders wasn't supposed to play last year in the Colts-Patriots game until about an hour before gametime, so who knows.

He'll be playing, 100% sure. And have alligator arms every time he is thrown to. Pats in a yawner. Alligator arms? When did Harrison ever become a reciever who has alligator arms? Certainly not against the Patriots. He has had his bad games against the Patriots, sure. But also he's had: 8 catches, 145 yards, 2 TD's last regular season 9 catches, 128 yards, 2 TD's in 2005 If Harrison plays, watch who Asante Samuel covers. Whoever he doesn't cover will have the better day, as Ellis Hobbes can't cover either Wayne or Harrison, unless Harrison is completely hobbled.

How does any OF rack up two OF assists at first base on consecutive days?

assume they're out of it Ok, here's my somewhat complicated answer. I bid 1 dollar more than the leader has currently if it means that if he's betting enough to shut me out he'll finish lower than me if we both get it wrong. Here's a scenario like what I'm describing: Me-7600, Him-10000. I bid 2401 here (1 dollar more than he has). He has to bid 5201 in order to shut me. So if we both get it right, he wins of course. If we both get it wrong, I win. If I get it right and he gets it wrong, I win. Also, if he bids 0 in this scenario because he knows nothing about the subject, I still have a way to win, while if I bid 0 that isn't available to me. If I only have 6000 to his 10000, I bet it all. Bidding 4001 won't help here because he doesn't have to bet enough for it to matter if we both get it wrong. The only real way to win in this scenario is to get it right and for him to get it wrong, and so the best thing to do is maximize your payday if that happens. If the 3rd player becomes a factor, there are lots of different strategies to use depending on the situation and how close everyone is. The player in 2nd always has a really tough bet in those situations (as opposed to 3rd place, where you bet it all just about every time, and 1st place, where you bet just enough to shut the others out just about every time).

How much money does 3rd place have in this scenario?

The last 3 times the Colts played the Patriots, they put up 40, 27, and 38 points up. This Patriots defense is no better than the one the Colts put up 27 and 38 up against last year. Plus, the Colts in the past year have become really good at running the ball and throwing short passes, methodically moving down the field and controlling the clock. I'm not sure the Patriots will even get enough possessions to put 50 up. This game could be a 14 point swing on both sides, but I have a really hard time seeing either team win by 21 points. Both defenses are good, but can they really stop either offense?

Quit thinking like that...now its 2 years 14 million...still bad, but not as bad. Actually, it's $16.25/2. Even worse. And while I get the "only 2 years left" plan for making yourself sane, the truth is that we can't pretend that he didn't have an effect on our team in 2007. Both in performance and salary that could have been allocated in areas of greater need. I don't think that 5 million would have helped anywhere in 2007 in another area. In fact, if we just look at last year, that 5 million for Marquis was much better than anything else we could do with that money (look at all the other players who got 7 million or less, it's not a pretty sight). There was no minor leaguer that could replace Marquis's production from last year or any free agent in that price range. Those next 2 years are probably going to make the contact a whole lot worse though, although it depends on if Marquis can stay around average, and if the pitching market continues to be insane (the latter probably more likely than the former).

Coors is 415 feet to CF, not 315. The CF wall is a little further back than most ballparks, so if the ball traveled the same number of feet then Tim was right, it would be out in most ballparks. The thin air needs to be factored in to the equation, but I'm not sure how much that would add to the particular ball that was hit.

I didn't support the Big East love on here at all last year, but the Big East is getting cheated in the coaches poll. The fact that Connecticut and South Florida are behind teams like Florida and Auburn is absolutely ridiculous, especially the South Florida-Auburn comparison. Auburn has played the 7th hardest schedule to 13th for South Florida. Auburn has 3 losses, South Florida only has 2. Then you add in that South Florida has beat them head to head, and it doesn't make sense that Auburn is ahead of them now. For Connecticut, it's a little harder, but Connecticut has still played comparable schedules to Ohio State, Missouri, and Oklahoma, and is way behind them (especially Missouri and Oklahoma, who both also have one loss). I think all 3 of those teams deserve to be ahead of a 3 loss team like Florida, but somehow the other 2 are 10 spots ahead of Florida and Connecticut is somehow behind them.

That's possible, but I don't think that many teams have that kind of faith in their farm system. There are many GM's out there who will put pretty good value on the fact that Jones hit .332 after the All-Star Break. Jones is easy PR spin for a team who doesn't want to make a big splash in free agency. I can see the press release now: a veteran who's been on several playoff teams, hit .332 after the break, plays all 3 OF positions, and only has 1 year left on his deal. He'll be that guy who gets the casual fans excited for a team who isn't expected to do much in free agency. I can see Jones staying with the team because Hendry will demand value in players in addition to just dumping the salary. If he wants to just get rid of the salary though, that should be somewhat easy to do.

I'm told they "still have some work to do" on that. I don't know why. I don't understand how the team can pay Dempster and Wade Miller to rehab when they had about 1/200 of the upside that Prior has. The situations are a little different. Dempster and Miller were paid less than Prior will be (Miller got 1 million, and Dempster got 1.5 maybe??, while Prior gets 3 mininum). Also, Dempster and Miller were signed in January when the free agent season was basically over. The team knew that their money was already spent, and so there was no reason to not take a risk with whatever leftover money was spent. The decision on Prior has to be made before that when the team doesn't really know how much money they are going to spend in free agency. They won't know at the time if signing Prior will keep them from having the money to sign somebody, while in Dempster and Miller's case they knew they weren't getting anybody else. I'm not saying the Cubs shouldn't tender Prior a contract, but there definitely are significant differences between the situations beyond the fact that Prior has much more upside.

Sounds good. Only 1 big problem-you just upped the payroll by 30-40 million dollars. Do the Cubs really have that much payroll flexibility? Are you sure? No Floyd, no Prior = $10MM. Barrett is gone, replace by Soto = $4MM. Let's be generous and assume Jones can be moved after eating $2MM. Finally, maybe Ohman gets moved to free up $1.5MM. Then if you sign Fukudome for let's say, $8MM/year, sign Kuroda for let's say, $4MM/year (re: Iwamura and Okajima money), and take on $8MM/year max in new salary with Tejada and your new LOOGY, then it looks like we're talking about a net increase of maybe $10MM max?? The problem is that several of the Cubs starters are also getting raises from last year. As it currently stands, the Cubs are at about the same payroll level as last year, even after losing the salaries of Floyd and the other free agents. Besides, Floyd and Prior together made less than 8 million, not 10. Barrett only made 2.5, not 4. I'm not sure Kuroda will go for that cheap either. I think it will be more likely that he'll get Kei Igawa type money. I'd also be suprised if Fukudome signs for less than 10 million a year. Tejada is supposed to make 13 million next year. I don't see how you're going to get the Orioles to eat that much money to squeeze both Tejada and a LOOGY for only 8 million combined.

Why couldn't he get 9/288? Even if some team thought he was worth that, who has that kind of money to throw around? Most of the big money teams either don't want A-Rod, don't have the money to spend right now, or already have the left side of their infield completely locked up.

Sounds good. Only 1 big problem-you just upped the payroll by 30-40 million dollars. Do the Cubs really have that much payroll flexibility?

It almost certainly won't matter, but that timekeeper on the spike was horrible. It was 23 seconds when they lined up over the ball, and they spiked it immediately. It should have stopped at 22, but then it went down to 21. As the QB was walking away, it then started again and went down to 20, and never got corrected.

Well, with some ranked teams still playing or yet to play (and some of course playing each other) so far in the BCS rankings: the #8, 10, 11, 12, 14, and 15th teams have lost. Another ho-hum day :D There are 2 matchups left between top 25 teams. So 2 will lose from those games, and then I'll predict that 2 others go down tonight making 10 of the top 25 losing today.

I have no problem with them doing it given what USC has done the past 5 years. Oregon is the higher ranked team and they were favored in the game though only by 3. They should have won the game. Rushing the field should be reserved for upsets of higher ranked teams. This wasn't an upset and the higher ranked team didn't lose. I'm usually in favor of fans rushing the field but it's just stupid in this case. I have no problem with them rushing the field. The students in that student section have never seen Oregon this high before. They have a shot at the national title, absolutely needed this game to have a shot at the title game, and were playing a team who had destroyed them and everybody else the last few years. You add all that and add a very close game decided in the final minute, and rushing the field is a natural reaction for those students.