Edwin MacPhisto

It's actually 24-3 now! I'm going to go open my wrists.

I usually make a few picks of underdogs, mostly because I usually spend more than 5 minutes on them and can pretty strong feelings about 1-2 matchups that will go the other way. Busy week at work means less time to ponder my domination. Let's go SEC shootout!

That's the funniest fucking thing I've seen all week. Slo-mo pretzel choke. You have got to be fucking kidding me with this awesomeness.

I really don't think you're arguing with anyone here if you're saying that a campaign slogan is hollow. If you really desperately want to know what he's sponsored and you don't trust wikipedia (which was merely presented as the best aggregator and contains citations for all references), then you could spend all of the eight seconds it takes to type "obama bills sponsored" into Google and visit the first hit. Which is the Library of Congress. Is that a good enough source? The THOMAS database lets you view a full list of bills and resolutions sponsored or co-sponsored by every sitting representative or senator with about three clicks. If you're not going to put stock in his proposals or accomplishments so far or write them off as invalid, then I don't know what to tell you. Who cares if they're about "change" or whatever buzzword; look at them for what they are, at least, and make your decisions based on that. The thing I probably tire of most this time of year: people who complain about not trusting statement X or information Y from a given campaign, when information verification and primary sources are more readily available than ever.

I wish 909 and I had picked at least one different game. Tiebreaks are okay, but only when you do something to get there. I suppose that's what I get for picking all favorites, though.

Free point Thursday is a lie!

Oregon State needs to score on this drive. The way they're running the ball, they could conceivably kill the clock in the 4th quarter if they've got a 2-score lead.

THURSDAY USC FRIDAY Louisville SATURDAY Duke Miami Iowa Purdue Florida State Fresno State Oklahoma South Florida Georgia Penn State Nebraska Washington Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Alabama/Georgia game? 52 Tiebreak #2: How many passing yards will Oklahoma's Sam Bradford have against TCU? A metric fuckton, aka 348

The desperation is pretty clear. Makes sense; Obama's back up in almost every major poll, and outside the margin of error in half of them. Old man's runnin' scurred, and he's going to get Nixon'd the first time the two of them are on stage together.

Yes, most BCS teams also play an FCS team, but most BCS teams also face at least one and often more ranked or highly credible teams during their conference season. Ohio State and Penn State still have to play through their Big Ten schedules; LSU got through Auburn but still has Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. The point is not that everyone else plays an FCS team too; it's that teams in the Mountain West or WAC already have their strength of schedule stacked against them to the point that they really shouldn't be playing any super-cupcakes if they're thinking national title.

1. Nathan blabbering about god is the worst cheesiest thing of all time. 2. The Sylar/Claire chase was stupid. The guy's telekinetic; it shouldn't have taken him more than 30 seconds to take care of things, not half an hour pacing around outside the Impenetrable Pantry of Solitude. 3. Didn't the writers learn from last year that dropping a character in an unfamiliar land full of exciting ethnic people is a stupid plot device? 4. Somebody on the staff must have watched The Fly last spring and thought "Imagine if we could make The Fly...ON TV!" 5. Is LobbyistNikki's power that she can make what people say into reality? Kind of a Scarlet Witch at the end of House of M thing? Or is just the much more boring scenario where she freezes people? 6. Disappointing to see Bob go. I like having people with largely useless powers around. 7. So, all the bad guys seem to have powers of "Beat People Up." That guy who throws blue fire looks like an utter retard. Glad to see Marlo getting work, though. 8. ChipLinderman! 9. Ventimiglia is really unconvincing when he's, like, scowling or trying to be badass. I liked it overall. Really stepped it up on the visuals for the premiere, particularly with the the fast-moving chickadee's frozen trails.

I think it's still a tough case to make, particularly for BYU and Utah. Playing Northern Iowa and Weber State, respectively, is a black mark. If we get to that point, I imagine "if you're not in a BCS conference and want the title, you have to play the best opponents whenever you can, not FCS cupcakes" emerging as a fairly solid point against either team. ECU was the only team that had the chance this year, because they chose to play all BCS teams. Now, it's looking like VT and especially WVU aren't as good as initially believed, but the idea stands. The best way for a non-BCS team to get there is to play 1-2 ranked powers, and fill the rest of the docket out with more BCS schools.

More common than you'd think, but still not common.

And Dead Calm! Well, I wouldn't really call that a good villain, but enjoyable at least.

That picture's getting into Muse territory. I hope it's the album cover.

The Cinematic Titanic thing, besides having a terrible name, feels a little embarrassing. All the silhouette stuff really shows how desperately these guys are clinging to their one big success. I can't blame them, but Rifftrax seems a lot more savvy and forward-thinking in its business model and execution at least, as far as someone making fun of a movie can be those things. Awful weird business to be in, though.

I feel like iggy and I have always been within a point or so of each other the whole life of this contest.

Holy hell, Wake's safety Patterson is fast. That was a beautiful INT run. And Skinner drops it at the 1! God, between that and the blocked pass on 4th down, Wake is seriously annexing the land of missed opportunities. I think I'd put Tennessee ahead of Arkansas and Mississippi State. And if Ole Miss loses to Vandy tonight, them too.

Also, Arizona stomped UCLA. That fluky win against Tennessee is apparently just as fluky as it seemed then--and not too impressive even then, given Tennessee's brutal performance under the oppressive boot of the Gators today.

In the third quarter, it looked like North Carolina had a decisive advantage in all facets of the VT game, up 17-3. They've just collapsed since, giving up 17 unanswered points and committing a lot of stupid penalties. Very close to making that 2nd-year leap, but this is a big missed opportunity if they can't come back in the final 2 minutes.

It was pretty subtle, but that was one of the best 2-play sequences I've ever seen called in a football game. The fake pitch on 1st down drew the LBs off to the right side of the field and established the Tebow draw, and then the jump pass played on that, getting the safeties to crush the line so the receiver could scoot past and be wide open. Mullen and Meyer are really good.

ECU/NC State is about to go into overtime. End of the Pitt game was sloppy, but good win for them. That's the kind of game they haven't been winning the past couple of years.

THURSDAY West Virginia SATURDAY Iowa Arizona Florida Michigan State Virginia Tech Miami Navy Utah Florida State Mississippi Auburn Georgia Iowa State Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the LSU/Auburn game? 30 Tiebreak #2: How many rushing yards will Georgia's Knowshon Moreno have against Arizona State? 134

bwaaa? Conference, sorry. I was more confused about the implication than the choice of terms; since Oregon's in the Pac-10 and Boise in the WAC, the only sort of championship chances this could affect would be those of the national variety. The implication is that Boise State's the only undefeated team left in the WAC, and this would help them keep an edge on the only ranked team in their conference, Fresno State, and Oregon needs to stay undefeated as well to have a shot at the Pac-10 title with USC. Not to mention there's that whole "Boise State's playing with the big boys to prove they belong" thing. I hope I can get this at least on a regional broadcast. But...out of conference play has no effect on conference standings. A 9-3 team that's 9-0 in the Pac-10 wins over an 11-1 team that's 8-1 in the Pac-10. Anyway, enough grousing and eyebrow raising on my part. This is the part of the season that I really start to get into ridiculous fits of lust about the weekly SEC games. Anything involving two of Auburn, LSU, Tennessee, Georgia, and UF gets my full attention. This week's pair of matchups are especially intriguing given the uncertainty about Tennessee and Auburn's overall quality--that Tennessee lost a close one to a team that BYU made its 6th wife and that Auburn participated in the 3-2 aberration last week have me wondering. The Miami defense keeping UF and the mighty Tebowsaurus in check until the 4th quarter has me very puzzled about the UT/UF outcome. Verne, I'm coming for you.

Every Day Should Be Saturday is the standard for college football absurdity and humor. And Dr. Saturday, formerly known as Sunday Morning Quarterback, is the best site for analysis of college football minutiae, stats, trends, etc. King Kaufman at Salon is my favorite all-purpose sports guy, be it NFL or curling. Good combination of common-sense assessment and fascinating niche topics.