Bored

Jose Rijo - Starting Pitcher New York Yankees 1984 Oakland Athletics 1985-1987 Cincinnati Reds 1988-1995, 2001-2002 Awards 1990 World Series MVP All-Star Selections: 1 (1994) League Leader 1991: W/L Pct., WHIP 1993: Strikeouts, K/9 Career Ranks K/9: 34th K/BB: 90th Best Performance September 25, 1993 - Cincinnati at Colorado Pitched a complete game, one hitter in Mile High Stadium with a Charlie Hayes single in the 2nd being the only hit. Hall of Fame Stats Black Ink: Pitching - 9 (250) (Average HOFer ≈ 40) Gray Ink: Pitching - 93 (228) (Average HOFer ≈ 185) HOF Standards: Pitching - 20.0 (289) (Average HOFer ≈ 50) HOF Monitor: Pitching - 28.0 (446) (Likely HOFer > 100) Similar Pitchers in HOF: None Top 10 Similar Pitchers: Sid Fernandez, Bruce Kison, Gary Peters, Ray Culp, Bob Veale, Bob Ojeda, Mike Scott, Don Wilson, Sonny Siebert, Joe Horlen Year-by-Year Win Shares & Wins Above Replacement Level (WARP3) 1984: 1/0.8 1985: 4/2.3 1986: 5/2.2 1987: 0/0.0 1988: 15/6.3 1989: 9/3.8 1990: 17/6.4 1991: 17/6.9 1992: 19/7.6 1993: 26/11.5 1994: 11/6.1 1995: 4/1.8 2001: 2/0.3 2002: 2/1.1 Career Win Shares: 132 Career WARP3: 57.1 My Stupid Opinion This is Rijo's second different appearance on the HOF ballot as he was also on the 2001 ballot (received just one vote) but he made a comeback with the Reds later that year. Very good pitcher in the early 90's including a Cy Young caliber year in 1993 but the 257 innings he pitched that season probably did in him as his elbow was never the same. Ended up having four different Tommy John surgeries so he belongs in the infirmary wing of the HOF.

I think the for the first time the final individual ballots for the Coaches' Poll have been made public. I haven't had a chance to look at it in great detail but this should prove interesting. One thing I did see that the coach who voted Hawaii #1 was Hal Mumme. Link

UCLA has a Top 5 recruiting class coming in for 2008. It's a much more attractive job than some people may think.

Before I get to the redux my of idea for creating a playoff system and at the same time improve the bowl selection process, I'm going to make a little comment on Hawaii. Whenever I see someone say "Hawaii should be in the BCS Championship!", I just want to pat them on the head and say "Aww, aren't you cute? Yes you are, yes you are!" In the current structure of college football, which I agree is a joke, Hawaii has no business playing for the championship. The purpose of the BCS is purely to match-up the two most deserving teams and nothing else. Hawaii is in no way shape or form one of the two most deserving teams in the country of playing for the Mythical National Championship and they are not on the same level of Boise State last year or Utah in 2004. I know it's a tired argument but it is always worth enforcing that they played what was the weakest schedule in the country. They played a total of three teams in the BCS Top 80 this year (Fresno State, Boise State, Washington) and all three game came at home. The best team they played on the road this year was Nevada who is ranked 83rd overall by the BCS computer rankings and only the Billingsley rankings had them in the Top 80 (78th). This team is going to get flat out killed in the Sugar Bowl by Georgia and I think it's going to be a beating so bad that it could hurt the cause of the non-BCS conferences. And that being said, Hawaii deserves to play for a National Championship...if there was a playoff. Like Boise State last year, they didn't lose a game. It's the biggest hole in the "the regular season is a playoff" argument. If you didn't lose a game, how'd you get eliminated? I'm not going to retype my whole idea from last year but here is my idea in a nutshell: Eight teams, the first round is played on the homefield of the higher seeds, while the semi-finals and finals are played on the traditional BCS bowl sites. Automatic qualifiers would be the six BCS conference champions and any undefeated non-BCS conference team. If there are any available slots after that they will go to the highest ranked team(s) that did not win their conference championship. Now there is an argument out there that we only need a four team playoff and I'll tell that has too many problems for it to ever to work. First off the BCS conferences will never go for it. Are you gonna tell me the SEC or Big Ten would ever agree to a playoff that could leave the possibility of their champ not having a chance to win a real National Championship? Also it doesn't solve the problem of the exclusion of the Boise State's and Hawaii's of the world as no non-BCS conference team has ever finished the season ranked in the BCS Top 4. An eight team playoff gives all the BCS conferences a piece of the pie while pleasing the non-BCS conferences and the general public of giving the opportunity for those "small" schools to play for a championship. An eight team playoff is logistically possible and doesn't over bloat the season too much. So in my hypothetical scenario this year the Sugar Bowl is the site of the National Championship while the Orange and Rose Bowls would host the semi-final games. Here's how the playoff would set up: Hawaii at Ohio State Georgia at Oklahoma West Virginia at LSU USC at Virginia Tech I don't know about you but I'll take the Pepsi Challenge of these games versus the sad slate of BCS bowl games we have this year. Now last year as well I also suggested that the whole bowl selection process has to be overhauled. Now this is an issue that obviously doesn't get much attention because the issue of actually crowning a real National Champion in major college football takes precedence. We need to junk the preset conference bids which are inherently unfair. BYU for example, who has been completely overlooked because of Hawaii, is ranked in the Top 20 of the BCS for the second straight year but once again they have to settle for the Las Vegas Bowl rather than a bigger game. Now there are certainly years where the Mountain West champ may only deserve a bowl of that caliber but the preset bids ensure that those teams will never get a better bid, unless they go undefeated and get into the BCS. The preset bids also can give us lopsided, uninteresting match-ups. Michigan is ranked 32nd in the BCS yet they will play in the biggest non-BCS bowl against Florida who is ranked 12th. Anyone remember what Dennis Dixon and company did against Michigan earlier in the year? What you think Tim Tebow is going to do them? Also we have the lameness of bowls like the Hawaii Bowl or the New Mexico Bowl that can take the home school to play creating a road game for their opponent for what is technically supposed to be a neutral site. My idea was/is to have an actual bowl committee that assigns similar ranked teams to appropriate bowl games. Now you wouldn't want to necessarily match-up #15 vs. #16 and #21 vs. #22 automatically because obviously there would be cases where you'd have two teams from the same conference or two teams that already played each other, which funny enough even with the preset bids we have two rematches this year (Las Vegas and Motor City). You also wouldn't want to have say a Pac-10 team play a Mountain West team in the Outback Bowl in Tampa nor would you want a Big East team to play an ACC team in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. Location can be important for selling tickets which is part of the reason why we have preset bids, although it would been unavoidable in some cases to have bad location match-ups and hell the ACC sends teams to San Francisco and Boise. Another advantage to getting rid of the preset bids is it would create more variety in inter-conference match-ups instead the same conferences playing each other in the same bowls for several yars. Just for example, the Pac-10 and SEC haven't played each other in a bowl game since the 1989 Freedom Bowl (Washington State vs. Florida). One other thing for the BCS bowl who is not part of the playoff, that being the Fiesta Bowl is this scenario, they would get the two highest ranked teams not in the playoff provided those two teams aren't in the same conference which this year would be the case with Missouri and Kansas. And just to make the conference presidents fat and happy those schools would get the same payout as the playoff schools. So here's my "fantasy booking" of the bowl games. The order I placed the bowl games are based on how the current preset bids are handed out and not necessarily how I view each bowl. Last year I wanted only 20 bowl games outside the playoffs but I know there's no chance of ever significantly shrinking the number of bowls so this year I'm including them all. One provision I didn't think of last year is that after you get past the BCS Top 25 I'd only place teams based on their overall computer ranking as otherwise you could get coaches or former players (Harris Poll) giving their school a throw away 25th place vote to get their school a better bowl game. Fiesta: Missouri vs. Arizona State Capital One: Kansas vs. Florida Cotton: Illinois vs. Clemson Holiday: Boston College vs. BYU Chick-fil-A: Tennessee vs. Wisconsin Gator: Texas vs. South Florida Outback: Virginia vs. Cincinnati Sun: Auburn vs. Boise State Champs Sports: Connecticut vs. Wake Forest Music City: Oregon State vs. Michigan Insight: Oregon vs. Arkansas Meineke Car Care: Florida State vs. Kentucky Las Vegas: Arkansas vs. Texas A&M Liberty: Penn State vs. Mississippi State Independence: Air Force vs. Georgia Tech Emerald: Utah vs. UCLA Motor City: UCF vs. Texas Tech Humanitarian: Michigan State vs. South Carolina GMAC: Maryland vs. Alabama Texas: Rutgers vs. Oklahoma State International: Colorado vs. Troy Poinsettia: California vs. New Mexico Armed Forces: Louisville vs. Purdue PapaJohns.com: Fresno State vs. Indiana Hawaii: Tulsa vs. Navy New Orleans: TCU vs. Florida Atlantic New Mexico: Central Michigan vs. East Carolina

Texas beats UCLA 63-61 in a wild finish. With less than 10 seconds left D.J. Augustin takes a wild, out of control shot that misses the rim but Damion James grabs it like it's alley oop and slams it home for the eventual winning score. TV Schedule for the Week of 12/3 - 12/9 And here's the ESPN, FSN (mostly) national, a Versus game, and CBS games too. MONDAY Wofford at Wisconsin, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN2 TUESDAY Jimmy V: Kansas State vs. Notre Dame, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN #1 North Carolina at Pennsylvania, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2 Jimmy V: #24 USC vs. #2 Memphis, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN WEDNESDAY Alabama vs. #5 Georgetown, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN Syracuse at Virginia, 7:30/4:30 PM, ESPN2 Auburn vs. West Virginia, 9:00/6:00 PM, ESPN2 THURSDAY South Carolina vs. Providence, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2 LSU at #25 Villanova, 9:30/6:30 PM, ESPN SATURDAY #22 Arizona vs. Illinois, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN Michigan at #6 Duke, 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, CBS DePaul at #3 Kansas, 2:00 PM/1:00 AM, ESPN Dayton at #14 Louisville, 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, ESPN2 #12 Pittsburgh at Washington, 3:00 PM/Noon, FSN Kentucky at #15 Indiana, 4:00/1:00 PM, CBS Purdue at Missouri, 4:00/1:00 PM, ESPN2 #9 Michigan State vs. #20 BYU, 4:00/1:00 PM, Versus #11 Marquette at Wisconsin, 6:00/3:00 PM, ESPN2 SUNDAY George Washington at Virginia Tech, 5:30/2:30 PM, FSN Boston College at Maryland, 7:30/4:30 PM, FSN

Everyone knows the scenarios. If West Virginia and Missouri win they will play in the BCS Championship. If one of them loses Ohio State will then advance. If both of them lose we'll have College Football Armageddon, which I'm personally rooting for as more chaos can only get us closer to some semblance of a playoff system. Network/Basic Cable Schedule THURSDAY Rutgers at Louisville, 7:30/4:30 PM, ESPN FRIDAY Fresno State at New Mexico State, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN2 SATURDAY MAC Championship: Central Michigan vs. Miami of Ohio, 11:00/8:00 AM, ESPN2 Army vs. Navy, Noon/9:00 AM, CBS Conference USA Championship: Tulsa at UCF, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN ACC Championship: #11 Boston College vs. #6 Virginia Tech, 1:00 PM/10:00 AM, ABC SEC Championship: #7 LSU vs. #14 Tennessee, 4:00/1:00 PM, CBS UCLA at #8 USC, 4:30/1:30 PM, ABC Oregon State at #17 Oregon, 4:30/1:30 PM, ESPN2 California at Stanford, 7:00/4:00 PM, Versus Pittsburgh at #2 West Virginia, 7:45/4:45 PM, ESPN Big XII Championship: #9 Oklahoma vs. #1 Missouri, 8:00/5:00 PM, ABC Arizona at #13 Arizona State, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN2 Washington at #12 Hawaii, 11:30/8:30 PM, ESPN2 Digital Cable/Satellite/Gameplan Schedule SATURDAY FCS Quarterfinals: Eastern Washington at Appalachian State, Noon/9:00 AM, GP FCS Quarterfinals: Delaware at Northern Iowa, 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, GP FCS Quarterfinals: Massachusetts at Southern Illinois, 3:30/12:30 PM, GP #19 BYU at San Diego State, 6:30/3:30 PM, Mtn. FCS Quarterfinals: Richmond at Wofford, 7:00/4:00 PM, GP All Other Div. I-A Games SATURDAY Florida Atlantic at Troy Louisiana Tech at Nevada North Texas at FIU

One change from what I posted, Michigan State is going to the Champs Sports Bowl and Purdue is going to the Motor City Bowl.

I doubt the conference thinks it's worthless considering the more than $30 million they've made now these last two years from Boise State and Hawaii making BCS bowls.

Here's the non-BCS bowls, barring some last second change. Of note BYU and UCLA already played this season which makes me giggle because the other option was Cal but Vegas wanted nothing to do with them. Poinsettia: Utah vs. Navy New Orleans: Florida Atlantic vs. Memphis PapaJohns.com: Cincinnati vs. Southern Miss New Mexico: Nevada vs. New Mexico Las Vegas: BYU vs. UCLA Hawaii: East Carolina vs. Boise State Motor City: Central Michigan vs. Purdue Holiday: Texas vs. Arizona State Texas: Houston vs. TCU Champs Sports: Boston College vs. Michigan State Emerald: Oregon State vs. Maryland Car Care: Wake Forest vs. Connecticut Liberty: UCF vs. Mississippi State Alamo: Penn State vs. Texas A&M Independence: Colorado vs. Alabama Armed Forces: Air Force vs. California Sun: South Florida vs. Oregon Humanitarian: Fresno State vs. Georgia Tech Music City: Florida State vs. Kentucky Chick-fil-A: Clemson vs. Auburn Insight: Indiana vs. Oklahoma State Outback: Wisconsin vs. Tennessee Cotton: Missouri vs. Arkansas Gator: Virginia vs. Texas Tech Capital One: Florida vs. Michigan International: Rutgers vs. Ball State GMAC: Tulsa vs. Bowling Green

Fuck Fox, here's your BCS bowls. BCS: Ohio State vs. LSU Sugar: Georgia vs. Hawaii Orange: Virginia Tech vs. Kansas Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. West Virginia Rose: USC vs. Illinois

And it just got leaked that Missouri is going to the Cotton Bowl so despite beating them and being ranked higher, Kansas gets a BCS at large bid.

Arizona State has accepted an invite to the Holiday Bowl so we know they didn't make the Fiesta Bowl, which also means Illinois did make the Rose Bowl as the Big Ten threw it's weight around, and that also means Georgia goes to the Sugar Bowl. Only question right now is did Missouri get in over Kansas.

It's official: Ohio State vs. LSU for the BCS Championship. The surprise is who ended up #3. Also Missouri does end up ranked higher than Kansas so that will hopefully kill the all-Big XII Fiesta Bowl. Final BCS Rankings 1. Ohio State 2. LSU 3. Virginia Tech 4. Oklahoma 5. Georgia 6. Missouri 7. USC 8. Kansas 9. West Virginia 10. Hawaii 11. Arizona State 12. Florida 13. Illinois 14. Boston College 15. Clemson 16. Tennessee 17. BYU 18. Wisconsin 19. Texas 20. Virginia 21. South Florida 22. Cincinnati 23. Auburn 24. Boise State 25. Connecticut

A reminder as to how the conference championships work as we have one player who was not part of the contest last year when I changed to this format. There will be a total of 20 games, for this first week there will be 12 games to make picks for and next week there will be 8 games plus the two tiebreaker questions, which I will post those games in this thread next Sunday. All picks must be sent to me by PM with the exception of phoenixrising because he's my opponent and there's no point in sending his picks by PM. For you phoenix my picks will be up Wednesday night, you are free to wait to make your picks until then if you so choose. It probably won't matter anyways as I think I always lose to you. For rest of the match-ups I will post the picks only when both players have submitted picks to me. Now this year I did include the Thanksgiving game as it was too big of a game to skip so it might be a good idea to get your picks in the day before so you don't forget. For those of you not playing in the conference champions but who have locked up bowl bids or are holding out hope to get the last bid, the bowls will be announced at the conclusion of the conference championships two weeks from now. I'm only setting one deadline but it will basically work the same way as any other week in terms of losing out on a game if you don't get your picks in on time. Week 13 Deadline Thursday, November 22nd, 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST Week 13 Match-ups Western Atlantic Championship #5 Virginia* (Edwin MacPhisto, 8-4) vs. #10 Boise State* (Vitamin X, 9-3) - GAME OF THE WEEK Southeastern Seven Championship #1 South Carolina* (Cuban Linx, 10-2) vs. UTEP* (Angel Grace Blue, 7-5) Big 8 Championship #3 Nebraska* (Mecca, 9-3) vs. Oklahoma* (Secret Agent, 6-6) Pac-8 Championship #7 Stanford* (Bored, 8-4) vs. UCLA* (phoenixrising, 7-5) Big MAC Championship #8 Rutgers* (the pinjockey, 7-5) vs. Miami of Ohio* (Hawk 34, 7-5) Week 13 Match-ups to Make Picks For - Part 1 THURSDAY USC at Arizona State FRIDAY Nebraska at Colorado Boise State at Hawaii SATURDAY Virginia Tech at Virginia Maryland at N.C. State Tennessee at Kentucky Wake Forest at Vanderbilt Connecticut at West Virginia Oregon at UCLA Kansas State at Fresno State Clemson at South Carolina Missouri vs. Kansas

A few others confirmed: Kentucky vs. Florida State in the Music City Bowl, Oklahoma State to the Insight Bowl, Mississippi State to the Liberty Bowl, and Alabama to the Independence Bowl which officially eliminates South Carolina from bowl consideration. Edit: Arkansas to the Cotton Bowl. The SEC pretty much is set as beyond something bizarre happening it'll be Florida in the Capital One, Tennessee in the Outback, and Auburn in the Chick-fil-A.

Yes I'm hoping West Virginia ends up in the Fiesta Bowl and then I prefer Missouri over Kansas in the Orange Bowl but seems like the Tigers will have to settle for the Cotton Bowl. The only thing that could really throw things out of whack is since Ohio State will be #1 the Rose Bowl will get the first pick and they don't have to take USC the first time around, they can use their replacement pick on whoever they want. I'm usually a Rose Bowl purist but it would be great if they were to take Georgia and that would have a ripple effect that could give us a lot more interesting games, beyond of course a great USC/UGA match-up. But it seems very likely they'll keep the Pac-10/Big Ten tradition and go with Illinois.

The popular opinion at the moment is this will be the BCS line-up. BCS: Ohio State vs. LSU Orange: Virginia Tech vs. West Virginia Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. Kansas Sugar: Georgia vs. Hawaii Rose: USC vs. Illinois Seriously of all the possible combination of match-ups this is by far the least interesting they could come up with. I don't care if Oklahoma and Kansas didn't play each other this season, two teams from the same conference shouldn't meet in a bowl game.

AP Poll National Champion is the equivalent of "World's Greatest Grandpa" since it left the BCS. Edit: And LSU is #2 in the new AP poll so won't matter anyways.

As I mentioned last week if Secret Agent lost that would open up a bid for a 6-6 team, which would go to the highest ranked one from this group: Ball State (Vampiro69) Buffalo (Carnival) Georgia Tech (iggymcfly) San Diego State (the walkin' dude) USC (Cartman) And the winner is....the walkin' dude! He ended up ranked one spot higher than iggymcfly. That now makes three straight years that the defending Bored Bowl Champion failed to make a bowl game. Note: I'll have bowl pick 'em thread up next weekend. Bowl Match-ups Bored Bowl #1 South Carolina (Cuban Linx) vs. #2 Nebraska (Mecca) The Synagogue Bowl presented by Al Jazerra #3 N.C. State (AboveAverage484) vs. #5 Stanford (Bored) The SWF.com Dust Bowl #6 Boise State (Vitamin X) vs. #8 Rutgers (the pinjockey) Deadspin.com Barbaro Memorial Bowl #4 LSU (teke184) vs. #10 Texas (UTBroward) Covers.com Degenerate Bowl #7 Florida State (King) vs. Syracuse (CanadianChris) KFC PETA Bowl UCLA (phoenixrising) vs. Michigan (MFerXtreme87) ConED Blackout Bowl #9 Virginia (Edwin MacPhisto) vs. UTEP (Angel Grace Blue) Ex-Lax Toilet Bowl Kent State (JHawk) vs. Arizona (UZI Suicide) Trent Boyette’s Texas Chili Bowl Miami of Ohio (Hawk 34) vs. San Diego State (the walkin' dude)

Right now. I thought about building some drama and doing a countdown to the top 2 spots but with Mecca's 17 of 20 performance it is now academic. It will be Cuban Linx against Mecca in the Bored Bowl. Congratulations to both. Bowl match-ups will be in the next post. Final 2007 Bored Championship Series Top 10 1. South Carolina - Cuban Linx 3.25 2. Nebraska - Mecca 3.6 3. N.C. State - AboveAverage484 4.85 4. LSU - teke184 5.55 5. Stanford - Bored 6.65 6. Boise State - Vitamin X 7.05 7. Florida State - King 7.9 8. Rutgers - the pinjockey 8.25 9. Virginia - Edwin MacPhisto 8.35 10. Texas - UTBroward 9.4

Week 13 Final Results Western Atlantic Championship #10 Boise State (Vitamin X) 14, #5 Virginia (Edwin MacPhisto) 13 Southeastern Seven Championship #1 South Carolina (Cuban Linx) 14, UTEP (Angel Grace Blue) 12 Big 8 Championship #3 Nebraska (Mecca) 17, Oklahoma (Secret Agent) 9 Pac-8 Championship #7 Stanford (Bored) 14, UCLA (phoenixrising) 12 Big MAC Championship #8 Rutgers (the pinjockey) 12, Miami of Ohio (Hawk 34) 11

ASU is going to win so their Fiesta Bowl hopes are still alive. My gut feeling is LSU will be #2 tomorrow. I think the Coaches and whoever the hell the Harris poll voters are will see that as the most fair thing to do, if there is such a thing as "fair" when it comes to declaring I-A National Champion.

Other potential big winner tonight is Illinois as they will move into the Top 14 with the BC and Tennessee losses and now could be Ohio State's replacement in the Rose Bowl. That would also bump Michigan from the Champs Sports to the Capital One Bowl.

Since someone will ask pretty soon, the BCS Selection Show tomorrow is at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST on Fox. I would love it if Virginia Tech got in over LSU. That would blow the 2001 and 2003 fiascos out of the water.

And on to the rest of the night. Go Pitt! Go Oklahoma! I want chaos! Seriously the possibilities for Ohio State's opponent are just too awesome, if both Missouri and West Virginia lose. 1. Georgia - Two loss team who failed to win their own division in conference. 2. Kansas - Does not have a win over a Top 40 BCS team and failed to win their own division in conference. 3. Virginia Tech - Two loss team who lost 48-7 to LSU. 4. LSU- Two loss team who hasn't looked good down the stretch. Georgia is playing the best right now and LSU has the best resume. In the end I don't care, just one step closer to a playoff.