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I wouldn't consider Philly's schedule that much harder than the Giants remaining. The Eagles have to host the Colts, Texans, and Vikings and go on the road to Chicago. The Giants have to play at Green Bay, at Minnesota, and at Seattle while hosting Jacksonville. The Giants have an extra game with Washington and the Eagles have an extra game at Dallas. Those schedules are pretty much a tossup when you consider how good Seattle can be at home and how poor the Texans have been in the past on the road (although they have pulled out 2 close wins this year). It will probably come down to the two Giants-Eagles games. If the Eagles sweep, they have the advantage. A split and the Giants have a decent advantage in that division.

I'll be honest, I still feel comfortable saying the Colts will win the South. The Titans and Texans have played well, but I just don't think they'll surpass the Colts this year. I think Peyton will make mince meat out of our secondary. Maybe, but if the Colts lose tonight not only will they be behind in record but they'll be in very bad tiebreaker shape (they would already lose the tiebreaker to the Texans and the Titans would just need a split to pretty much lock up the tiebreaker over the Colts). If they win tonight, they'll be in pretty good shape but they still have a lot of work to do and of course have some serious injury questions still. I could see betting on them on the theory that Peyton will find a way, but I don't think it's anywhere near a slam dunk.

5-3 heading into the bye isn't bad considering only 2 teams will have more wins after tonight. Only 1 team actually. 1 team at 6-1, 8 teams will be 5-2, 3 are 5-3, and 5 more will be 4-3. What is interesting also is that every division is in turmoil. I don't remember a season where there weren't at least a couple runaway favorites in divisions by midseason. This year..if you had to pick any team in the league to win its division, who would you feel safe with. Green Bay? Kansas City? There just isn't a dominant division leader right now. A lot of that of course is due to the fact that some divisions are really good (AFC South, AFC East, NFC South) and some are really bad (NFC West, AFC West, NFC North).

Nevada winning is mostly irrelevant for Boise now. It makes very little impact in the computers. And the way the teams have shook out a win over a 9-1 Nevada team isn't really going to move them in the polls any differently than a 7-3 Nevada team. The team that would really help them to keep winning is Va Tech. If they win out and win the ACC Championship game that would definitely be a boost in the computers and a possible boost in the polls. The game that would really, really help both Boise and TCU is Oregon and Oregon State. If Oregon State pulled off the upset, it would knock Oregon out of the picture and it would provide a decent boost in the computers to both TCU and Boise.

I'm trying to figure what result I should be wanting out of that game as a Boise St fan. Probably Utah based on the Computer Bowls. I don't think a win will jump themp over Boise. But a TCU win should jump TCU ahead of Boise in the human polls and they already have the lead in the Computer Polls. TCU has given up 16 points the last 5 games though they haven't played a road game in a month. I'm not sure a TCU win will jump them over Boise in the polls. Boise's still closer to Auburn then they are to TCU in the polls. And the fact that Boise beat TCU last year (should be irrelevant but it isn't) and Boise is playing a pretty good team this week should keep them ahead unless TCU just obliterates Utah. But I would still agree that a Utah win is preferable for Boise State fans even though it increases the risk of Alabama passing Boise State.

It also appears that for one of Boise/TCU/Utah to make the title game, they just need one of the following 3 things to happen (along with going undefeated): Oregon to lose Auburn to lose against somebody other than Alabama Alabama to lose against somebody other than Auburn Oklahoma has a small shot to overtake an undefeated Boise/TCU/Utah and I guess LSU would too especially if they found a way into the SEC title game. But both of those teams would need significant help (Ohio State and Wisconsin losses would help them move up in the polls for example). But mostly it's the undefeateds and Alabama right now and the others probably won't be considered until those start falling off.

when you lose is more important then who you lose too And where you start in the polls makes a huge difference. The teams who started 1 and 2 in the polls not coincidentally are the two teams that the polls rank a lot better than the computers do: Alabama: 5th in polls, 15th in computers Ohio State: 8th in polls, 16th in computers Meanwhile Missouri, Nebraska, LSU, Michigan State, and Oklahoma State are all seen as much better by the the computers than the polls. Missouri in particular still sticks out as they are 4th in the computers and average out to be 14.5 in the polls.

Yeah, I'm not confident at all about Harris. I think they have a decent shot at Ferrell. They also have at least a somewhat reasonable shot at Hollowell (although of course he's a forward). There's a couple other top 100 Indiana kids that could be fallback plans as well.

Good news. ( :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: ) It's going to be hard to imagine an Indiana team with legitimate size! Perea thinks that both Zeller and Yogi Ferrell will follow him (along with him already putting in a call to Gary Harris to recruit him). I'm a little more skeptical about if that's going to be true. The key is still Zeller...if he comes Indiana will likely get one of the highly rated guards in the 2012 class. And if that happens, would that not be enough to consider them a legitimate threat?

ND is losing to teams whose starters wouldn't even backups for them. I'm not sure about that. They really haven't played a bottom of the barrel team yet this season. Tulsa's below average and definitely not a team that ND should ever lose to but they're not one of the worst 25 teams in Division 1-A. In fact, ND and Tulsa were only 9 places apart on Sagarin's predictor entering today (ND 47, Tulsa 56). Throw in Crist's injury and it's not surprising they could lose a close game to them. And Tulsa definitely had some playmakers on offense that could play for anybody.

Definitely another low point for ND but not a shock. They had a mediocre team from last year and lost 2 of their 3 best players. They had good skill players remaining which would have kept them in games even without much of a defense but they've gotten hit hard with injuries. Their backups are decent but when you're decent at the skill positions and bad almost everywhere else the team is going to struggle.

And lost their starting QB for the season in the process.

It would of course depend on how high you're actually selling on Soto but almost certainly not. Chiniros and Castillo might produce league average at catcher (and the emphasis is on might) but that would be a 100-200 point drop from what Soto would produce. If Soto could produce another player like Castro at another premium position (2nd, 3rd, pitcher may all work) then you'd have to seriously think about it. But I doubt Soto could get a player like Castro right now. And if you're getting anything less, the drop in offense is too much for a team who already struggles at times offensively.

Your league doesn't count defensive scores against a defense? That is a common complaint of fantasy owners but I haven't seen many leagues who will actually do that.

Since the Colts are famous on saying people are day to day no matter how severe the injury, I see that as a very bad sign. I'd be almost certain about it except that Clark has been a very fast healer one time before when they were going to IR him and then suddenly he was back for the playoffs. Man, that's tough for the Colts. Definitely helps the Titans (and the Texans), but hurts one of my fantasy teams. Do the Colts still have Tamme at TE? Yes, they do. Tamme, Eldridge, and Gijon Robinson will try to fill the spot. Tamme is easily the best pure receiver of the 3 but he's also the worst blocker. I'd guess the Colts will try to get Tamme involved since they'll need the receiving threat (with Collie out, Gonzalez questionable, and both White and Garcon both currently playing with injuries it doesn't leave many receivers).

What's the likelihood on Clark being out for the year? I'd say pretty good. He's displaced a ligament in his hand and it's supposedly a pretty rare injury. They haven't even figured out how to treat it yet or if it will require surgery. Polian was asked about the length of the injury: Since the Colts are famous on saying people are day to day no matter how severe the injury, I see that as a very bad sign. I'd be almost certain about it except that Clark has been a very fast healer one time before when they were going to IR him and then suddenly he was back for the playoffs.

The Pac-10 has decided on the North-South split for football divisions: North: Stanford, Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State South: USC, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Colorado Stanford/Cal will play USC/UCLA every year. Those are the only cross divisional games that will be locked in. There will be no divisions for basketball. The biggest surprise is the championship game. The division winner with the best conference record will get to host the championship game. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5711336

The Colts are not having a good bye week. Austin Collie has had surgery on his hand and will miss several weeks at least. Addai is still uncertain on when he'll be able to lift his left arm again and could miss a few weeks depending on how it heals. Antonio Johnson also underwent knee surgery and his return is uncertain.

Whoever is getting Jennings is getting the better end of the deal, imo. I would take Jennings too, but I do think it's fair to offer. Jennings has questions surrounding him (how much will he get doubled now that GB has no running game and no Finley). Torain will start for at least another couple weeks and possibly longer and Bryant is a wildcard that could get more involved in a very good passing offense. I don't think it's severely lopsided.

It will be interesting to see if the NFLPA gets involved here. Interesting decision by the Colts to suspend McAfee after doing nothing when Moala got arrested and charged with a DWI earlier this year. Dallas Clark is also out indefinitely and there are lots of whispers that he may be gone for the year.

He was a relief pitcher for only one year as an amateur, which was his junior year at TCU. Prior to that, he was a starter in junior college and in high school. And he wasn't all that great a pitcher until he became a reliever. And then again when he became a starter again. I don't see the point in putting much weight in Cashner's #s from 4 years ago in college when we have his recent success as a starter to go off of. Plus he gained velocity as a reliever and when he became a starter again he still had increased velocity. It's no fluke that he had different results as a starter in the minors than in junior college because he had vastly different stuff.

Not to quibble but 3B and LF weren't doing us any favors in the offense department either. 3B: Cubs: .262/.321/.450 NL average: .265/.331/.421 LF: Cubs: .261/.321/.473 NL average: .266/.337/.433 So both positions were a little light on OBP (hopefully Ramirez makes 3B better in that department next season) but both positions were average or maybe just slightly above.

I know this is popular sentiment but there is really no reason this team can't contend for the division in 2011. There's a lot to be done. They're not particularly good at anything, besides quality starts. The only entire component they were horrible in was bullpen though. And the below average offense was dragged down by 2 positions last year (2B and 1B). Both of those positions were awful last year. One of them they've upgraded to be very close to average during the season, and the other one they have the ability to turn from a major weakness into a major strength this offseason. Every other position was above average to great and if they keep Fukudome all of them would be projected to be above average again next year. They're definitely going to need a couple breaks. They'll need to not have everything go wrong with the young pitching as what happened to the bullpen this year and they'll need some decent starting pitching health. But they definitely have a shot and they're not nearly as far away as it might initially appear when looking at the roster player by player.

why is saragin the only ranking that matters? Illinois is not the 30th best team in the country and SDSt isn't 40th. They're not the only ranking that matters: Colley: Illinois 43rd, San Diego State 44th Wolfe: Illinois 38th, San Diego State 40th Massey: Illinois 39th, San Diego State 42nd Anderson/Hester: Illinois 39th, San Diego State 45th And the computer ranking that functions more like a poll where preseason rankings matter a bunch (Florida is still 8 spots ahead of Missouri in this ranking!) Illinois 44th, San Diego State 81st The point isn't to say that Illinois is exactly 30th or San Diego State is exactly 40th. The other computer rankings show those two teams as very close around in the 40-45 range. The point is that based on the results this year it is debatable on if Missouri or Alabama's schedule has been harder. Of the 3 computers which post SOS numbers, Colley has Missouri's schedule as stronger, Anderson/Hester has Alabama's as stronger, and Sagarin has it at a dead heat. The schedules are certainly close enough that Missouri as an undefeated team should definitely be ahead of 1 loss Alabama at this point even before the Oklahoma game, and they probably should be ahead of Alabama even if Missouri loses this week and Alabama wins (since Missouri's schedule will certainly be harder than Alabama's this week after Missouri plays Oklahoma and Alabama plays Tennessee). The only way they probably shouldn't be ahead is if they absolutely get embarrassed. But a close loss probably still gives them a better resume than Alabama. I don't agree. Teams that haven't been really good lately aren't going to get the nod over proven teams, esp the defending national champion. That's even more true when the best win the other team has is Illinois. The burden is on Missouri to establish that they're actually good. Beating a bunch of crappy teams and Illinois isn't going to convince a lot of people. Of course that's the way it is. That's also the lazy way out. The burden should be just as much on Alabama as it is on Missouri. It's not even like Alabama has the same team back. Half their starters from last year are gone. I would agree with you that the perceived difficulty is harder for the teams on Alabama's schedule. That doesn't make it reality though.

why is saragin the only ranking that matters? Illinois is not the 30th best team in the country and SDSt isn't 40th. They're not the only ranking that matters: Colley: Illinois 43rd, San Diego State 44th Wolfe: Illinois 38th, San Diego State 40th Massey: Illinois 39th, San Diego State 42nd Anderson/Hester: Illinois 39th, San Diego State 45th And the computer ranking that functions more like a poll where preseason rankings matter a bunch (Florida is still 8 spots ahead of Missouri in this ranking!) Illinois 44th, San Diego State 81st The point isn't to say that Illinois is exactly 30th or San Diego State is exactly 40th. The other computer rankings show those two teams as very close around in the 40-45 range. The point is that based on the results this year it is debatable on if Missouri or Alabama's schedule has been harder. Of the 3 computers which post SOS numbers, Colley has Missouri's schedule as stronger, Anderson/Hester has Alabama's as stronger, and Sagarin has it at a dead heat. The schedules are certainly close enough that Missouri as an undefeated team should definitely be ahead of 1 loss Alabama at this point even before the Oklahoma game, and they probably should be ahead of Alabama even if Missouri loses this week and Alabama wins (since Missouri's schedule will certainly be harder than Alabama's this week after Missouri plays Oklahoma and Alabama plays Tennessee). The only way they probably shouldn't be ahead is if they absolutely get embarrassed. But a close loss probably still gives them a better resume than Alabama.