ISUCubsFan

The last undefeated team and the last winless team both ruined their perfect seasons tonight. Wake lost to VT, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology beat Bryant to snap a 50+ game losing streak. Via the transitive property: NJIT > Bryant > Yale > Quinnipiac > St. Francis PA > Morgan St. > Maryland > Michigan > Duke

At least this gets Gammons back on Baseball Tonight. Too bad they can't get Miller onto another broadcast, he doesn't deserve this.

good deal for the Phils. Anyone know approximately what Hamels would get in arbitration? Seems like a steal for Philly.

Looks like I lock up 2nd with Tulsa tonight for the second year in a row. I'm becoming the Buffalo Bills of NSBB Bowl Pick'em. Almost got bailed out by Ohio State last night until they forgot to tackle, but there's probably a dozen games that would've changed the outcome.

The good news for me is that I'm now in the lead with 400 points and I'm virtually locked into 3rd or better. The bad news is that I need Ohio State to win or I have no chance at 1st. Not a whole lot has gone right for me since the 30th.

So Cowher, Shanahan, and Schottenheimer are all possibly available? I almost wish my team was in the market for a head coach.

Unless the plan is to free up money to get another starter this is kinda bad. The Cubs are going to need lots of starting pitching depth next year.

63 points today is nice, but I misjudged both of those games. My only major loss so far is CMU (29), so I'm in pretty good shape. Hard to make up much ground when I've pick the same team as Meph for the past week, but I have more points remaining now.

Just call this a tie, neither team deserves to win this and I don't want to listen to these announcers anymore.

This is amazing really, Mizzou has done absolutely nothing right on offense or defense the entire half and they're tied.

Miami survives, again. A win @NYJ next week and they're the 3 seed. A loss and they're out. Hopefully that game gets flexed to Sunday night so I can watch it. Either way, it's been a heck of a ride this season.

Iowa State hired Paul Rhoads, Auburn's DC, as head coach. Not the most exciting hire, and most people including me wanted someone with head coaching experience. On the plus side his defenses have been good where he's been, and he's an Ankeny native with Iowa State ties, so he might stick around for more than two years. Hopefully he can recruit and turns out better than the last DC ISU hired. I'm cautiously optimistic right now.

PLease tell me you heard Tebow's interview with Mel Kiper? My goodness, it was so funny. Kiper suggested that he would be a great Frank Wycheck type in the NFL... HBack. Tebow handled it well, to his credit, by asking what he needed to do to be seen as a QB and not just a "playmaker" at the next level. But, Kiper basically told him that he was not an NFL QB, but instead more of a FB/TE/HBack. It was priceless. I heard clips from it. It was quite funny, but at the same time true. Tebow is a terrific athlete who can excel at the next level as an athlete. Kiper's right, he's an H-back/TE/FB type player. He could be really, really good at that, though. With the NFL incorporating more wildcat formations, he would be one of the few who would really be a threat to pass. I cant remember where i read but some guy thought he might be worth a 3rd round pick for that alone, if he got banged up big deal he was just a 3rd round pick anyway (i dont know how much i believe it but i thought it was interesting). He could be a ultraback plus wildcat qb. I remember Culpepper being a bad ass around the 5 yard line running draws, Tebow could still be the one man playaction he is in college for those type of plays. Yeah, that's why I keep mentioning Kordell in the slash role - I think Tebow could play some QB. I just don't think his abilities are being utilized best in that role. He's too athletic and not a good enough thrower to play 100% of the time at quarterback. Unless somebody can come up with a good way to implement the spread option in the NFL - and I don't think that'll ever happen. I'm waiting for Al Davis to draft Tebow in 2010, sign Vick, hire David Lee as coach (after firing Art Shell of course), and run some form of the wildcat (wilddog?). Would it work? Probably not, but it would be fun to watch.

He was most fan's top choice, but I pretty much expected this. If you're getting interviewed by Auburn already why would you come here? The only risk he's taking is that Buffalo regresses significantly next year (possible considering they were pretty lucky this year). As for realistic candidates, I could try to name a few but I've learned that's pretty futile when Pollard is leading the job search. Two years ago everyone was convinced Brain Kelly would be introduced as coach tomorrow and Chizik wasn't even on the radar even though the interviews were held in Dallas.

The Dan Patrick Radio Show is reporting Boston's offer is 8/200 for Teixeira. Decent probability this is from Boras trying to get more money out of other teams, but that's a lot of money if true. http://fromthedugout.freedomblogging.com/2008/12/15/report-red-sox-offer-teixeira-200-million/7632/ EDIT: Nevermind, looks like it was a false rumor.

Don't blame them. This is the first coaching change I can remember that both sides were unhappy with the outcome. Chizik left ISU in a bad place and no one at Auburn wants him. Now Auburn is stuck with him for a few years and Iowa State has to find someone who's willing to clean up the mess that's left here. I did find this pretty funny though, even if the source video is getting overused: Hitler on Chizik Oh, and this:

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/6238/picture1fc5.png Pretty sure this was from before he was hired, but yeah they aren't too happy.

****. So I'm watching ISU transfer Shawn Taggart have a great game for Memphis and the Des Moines CBS station runs a scroll at the bottom of the screen confirming Chizik has taken the Auburn job.

Wow. I can't imagine ISU playing worse than they just did in that half. Completely awful in every possible way.

Yeah, that was unexpected. I would assume his 5 wins over the last 2 years would take him out of serious consideration. I don't think he a bad coach, and losing him now would be bad for the program, but in retrospect I wish the Brian Kelly to ISU reports were true.

Really worried about Brackins getting away from us inside. If we can defend him well and keep them off the offensive glass it will ease some of my concerns about us in the Big Ten. Well, a little bit at least. If Brackins decides to make his 5 footers and gets the ball enough he'll get his points, but he put up 30+ on UNI and that game still went to OT. And ISU doesn't do offensive rebounding, it's just not McDermott's style. They rank 331 out of 344 in OR% despite being one of the tallest teams in the country and rebounding well on defense. Since ISU doesn't create turnovers or outrebound anyone, they need to rely on outshooting most teams they play. Considering Iowa ranks 3rd in eFG% the chances aren't good tonight, but ISU is shooting far better than they have in the past. I'm predicting something like 63-50 Iowa, but I hope I'm wrong.

I don't know that 7 players for a reliever is bad 100% of the time. Now 7 players for a reliever who had elbow trouble last year, posted a 1.597 WHIP when he was active, and only had 2 years of greatness to begin with is probably a bad idea. They also passed up a lot of free agent relievers, which would've cost a few million dollars more and 7 trading chips less. That seems pretty silly to me unless the Mets are up against a tight budget and think Putz puts them over the top.

I believe you just have to have played in 10 seasons, be retired for 5 years, and be nominated by a screening committee. I don't even think there's a committee. Everybody who qualifies (10-year career, retired for 5 years) is added to the ballot the year they become eligible. To stay on the ballot beyond the first year the player needs to get some specified percentage of votes (5% sticks in my mind). Yes, definitely no screening committee. You think anyone would actually put Jeff Reboulet on a Hall of Fame ballot? According to the HOF website the screening committee exists. I agree there's really no point if there going to allow everyone on the ballot anyway.

You're confusing football with basketball here. ISU and Iowa are even over the last 10 years, which matches up pretty well with the quality of teams that they've had over that period.

I believe you just have to have played in 10 seasons, be retired for 5 years, and be nominated by a screening committee.