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Without Lance Stemler, one of Indiana's only shots to stay in it is gone. He provided a constant 3 point threat that they need to have D.J. White be effective most of the time. Now it may be a measure of avoiding the blowout, and it's 6-0 Duke already.

How badly will IU lose tonight? Me thinks the line is at 13 or 14. The real question is how much PSU will lose to GT. My guess is 32. I do think the Big 10 can win three games tonight--Illinois, Wisconsin, and even NU have good chances of winning tonight. Hopefully IU doesn't put up that much of an embarassing performance. I'm worried that IU will be embarrassed. If it was February, I'd give them a much better shot-but right now, they are still trying to find their identity. It will be a very tough game, and D.J. will have to have a big night along with a nice 3 point shooting percentage to be able to have a chance to win.

It's Bruce Miles, and all the other sites got their information from the San Fransisco Chronicle. They probably got their info from Schmidt's agent, which Bruce said was probably a false rumor that the agent thought up.

and then this... I would love it if LSU were selected for the Rose Bowl! That would be a very exciting game. In any other year I'd be ecstatic for ND to go to the Rose Bowl, but this year there is obviously just no way that it makes any sense. But a rematch of the "Cheerios Bowl" in 1992 with Florida in the Sugar Bowl would be fine by me. That's the matchup I want to see. I don't want to play Michigan or USC again, but I would love to see an ND/Florida matchup in the Sugar Bowl.

The only thing I'm worried about in that deal was that a couple of weeks ago a report came out that said that the Indians had no interest in Cedeno.

You can do more than that. You have to sell a lot more than just the contract. Epstein convinced Schilling to go to Boston after he had said he'd never go. Hendry has to do more than just layout a contract and say, "it's up to you." He should convince Schmidt that he's building a legit contender that will win big in the next few years. The contract itself is the most important thing, but you can't just stop there. I'm not positive about this now, but I seem to remember hearing a report from an unnamed agent saying something to the effect of the presentation Hendry made to Soriano to convince him to come out here was the best he had ever seen. I can confirm that I heard the exact same thing about the great presentation.

I don't know how much value Izturis would have, but somebody would trade for him. There are similar type shortstops out there who are receiving contracts (Alex Gonzalez, who is just a little better with his deal for example) and multiple teams were chasing him. If the Cubs decide they want to just give Izturis away or take a low prospect in return, there will probably be multiple teams interested.

I was just listening to Mike and Mike, and on one of their updates they just said that Buster Olney is reporting that the Orioles are going to sign Scott Williamson. They also reported that the Baltimore Sun says that the Orioles are going to sign Chad Bradford to a 3 year deal. How many relievers can Baltimore pick up? Wouldn't that be four already this offseason?

I know I shouldn't ask this, but what happens in the other 1% of the time? When he said that, I actually thought of one explanation. You don't win the game if you outscore the opponent but the game rains out before it is official.

Actually it's Wisconsin that's offering the money to Buffalo. hmmm. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/23/sports/ncaafootball/23college.html?ei=5088&en=6c9319bdf85298db&ex=1313985600&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print Yup, that link proves Cuse's point. Buffalo is getting paid over half a million dollars by Wisconsin to let Wisconsin destroy them.

Hendry put down what you're doing and get him. NOW. Again, I ask-why do you think we're on Manny's list to actually be traded to? Here's the list that I've gleaned from all the reports-the report last month said that it was 10-12 teams long. Giants Padres Dodgers Mets Rangers Orioles Indians Angels Those are 8 of the teams, which only leaves 2-4 teams left. I certainly don't think it's a huge possibility that the Cubs are one of those teams. It's possible, but not very likely IMO. Even if Hendry wanted him, he might not be able to get him if he does not want to come. Why do you think that? What evidence have you that you have not shared? And what is a "huge possibility" exactly? So you're saying there's a chance... Well, anything's possible :D From looking at the 22 teams left though, I just don't think the Cubs would be one of the frontrunners left. I think we would have had at least discussions with the Red Sox, even if those discussions went nowhere (like they are reporting with other teams). My guess is that the teams that are left on his list really have very little interest or capability to add on salary, which is why they have not been mentioned while the other 8 have. My last point is the media-if they knew the Cubs were on Manny's list, they would love to spread that news because it would gather more interest. The fact that it hasn't while most of the list has not been very secretive is probably a sign that they are not there.

Hendry put down what you're doing and get him. NOW. Again, I ask-why do you think we're on Manny's list to actually be traded to? Here's the list that I've gleaned from all the reports-the report last month said that it was 10-12 teams long. Giants Padres Dodgers Mets Rangers Orioles Indians Angels Those are 8 of the teams, which only leaves 2-4 teams left. I certainly don't think it's a huge possibility that the Cubs are one of those teams. It's possible, but not very likely IMO. Even if Hendry wanted him, he might not be able to get him if he does not want to come.

strange situation for them. two points either way to the fourth ranked team could mean the difference between a BCS game and the Lampshade Bowl. A similar thing happened to Tennessee in 2004. We made it to the SEC championship with two losses (I still have a little hate for ND for knocking Ainge out for the year in our loss to them) and outplayed Auburn but still lost and dropped from a BCS bowl to the Cotton Bowl. We went on to demolish TAMU in the bowl. Funny how the Cotton bowl is considered an inferior bowl. When I was a kid it was one of only 4 bowls on New Years day and it was a big one. The Southwestern Conference champ would go and play an at large. I remember Joe Montanas(really Notre Dame) comeback against Houston was a Cotton Bowl Yeah, the Cotton Bowl was the last bowl left out of the BCS-I have no idea how it became such a minor bowl so fast.

LOL-I was about to post yesterday during the game that I understand completely how it is to not get any pass interference calls against the Patriots. They interfere on just about every play, and hope the refs don't call it most of the time. Then I read this quote, and it's exactly what happened after the Colts game. In fact, I heard this "This game between the Colts and the Patriots proved why they were the better team-even with 4 turnovers, they still almost won the game! That won't happen again". Well, it has-but the media has amnesia when it comes to Patriot mistakes most of the time.

Jennings would definitely be. Westbrook may be (although it's close, I'm really not sure which one is better) but Igawa would be a better option than either of the other two because he can be signed rather than having to give up talent. Jennings is not coming to the Cubs unless they come down significantly with their demands for Hill, and Westbook is close enough to Igawa that it is not worth trading talent for him unless the deal was really good for the Cubs.

Who knows if we are even on the list of teams that Manny would consider to be traded to? Giants, Dodgers, Padres-it certainly sounds like he wants to go to a west coast team.

If Wolf wanted to go home to California, and the Dodgers offered a reasonable deal, I can't see how we could outbid them. He already turned down extra money to go there, so even more money is not likely to sway him.

Upside. Perhaps I'm overly optimistic about his abilities and Gerald Perry... but I don't see a chance in hell that Cedeno could be worse than Izturis with the bat this year. Izturis had a fluke season in 2004, hitting better than anything in his track record shows he had the ability to do... and he still couldn't crack a .700 OPS. Nitpick-Izturis had a .711 in 2004.

Wisconsin's not in the discussion. Obviously, they would be one of the leading candidates if they were eligble, but they are not. There was a little bit of discussion that if they were #3 overall if that would get them in, but it still doesn't. Two is the absolute limit for any conference. Which is a rule that IMO should be changed when you look at the fact that both LSU and Wisconsin are good enough to be BCS teams but simply have no chance (in LSU's case if Arkansas wins the SEC title game). I would agree that it needs to be changed. Now that there are 10 BCS slots, there is enough flexibility. Before, when there were only 8 teams in, it would require one conference to take both at-large spots, and that was seen as a little over the top. Now, with 4 at-large spots available, that concern is not nearly as large.

Agreed. Addai is becoming more involved in the Colts' running game. He may not officially be the starter yet, but it seems to me like he's really the regular.Talk about a slight understatement. :D Yeah-to Colts fans, Addai looks like a faster young Edgerrin. There were questions about his power-after watching him all season, I have no questions anymore as he just runs over people a great deal of the time. The only question I have now is durability. Can he stay healthy with the two prior knee surgeries, and can he take a full load on of carries, something that he's never done before? From game to game though, Addai is exactly the runningback that the Colts need, and is certainly better than James would have been this year.

Wisconsin's not in the discussion. Obviously, they would be one of the leading candidates if they were eligble, but they are not. There was a little bit of discussion that if they were #3 overall if that would get them in, but it still doesn't. Two is the absolute limit for any conference.

True....Bill Shanks, Bill Plashke, Mike Vacarro, John Kruk... Unfortunately, Hendry is the GM of a Major League Baseball team. Not a guy writing about them. That's a monster difference. I would say most of the GMs think the same way Hendry does. I'm not saying if it is right or not, but from their actions and words most GMs value the same types of things. I'm not sure about most, but there are certainly others, like Ned Colletti, who share Hendry's primitive thought process. Off the top of my head, the Reds and Orioles GM's come to mind as well. I'm sure I could think of many more if I thought about it-some are less obvious then others, but a great deal of GM's have many of the same tendencies.

True....Bill Shanks, Bill Plashke, Mike Vacarro, John Kruk... Unfortunately, Hendry is the GM of a Major League Baseball team. Not a guy writing about them. That's a monster difference. I would say most of the GMs think the same way Hendry does. I'm not saying if it is right or not, but from their actions and words most GMs value the same types of things.

It is possible. It would take a blowout win over Arkansas, and then it would be up to the voters. I think Florida's struggles with inferior teams in late October into November has really hurt them though. They simply don't look like the same team they were earlier in the season.

It's too late now for that to do him any good. Apologies must be immediate and sincere. Look at Pete Rose, for years people said "If he'd just admit it..." then once he did he was villified for not doing it sooner. By admitting corking his bat or taking steroids he betrays the faith of those that have supported him. What will help Sosa is time. When talk of steroids eventually goes away, he will be accepted again. No one cares that he corked his bat. Pete Rose admitting he did it was not the reason people villified him. It was because he used the admission as a way to make money in the form of a book. The apology was incredibly self-serving, and that did not go over well with the public.