iggymcfly

For Florida/Auburn, here's the situation. Florida had three games against Top 12 teams with two on the road and one at home. By winning 2 out of 3, they're outperforming expectations. Auburn meanwhile had 3 games, against Top 20 teams with two at home and one on the road, by winning 2 out of three, they're either performing at expectations or performing under expectations, depending on whether you think a 17th ranked team is good enough that you should be able to beat them even on the road. This head-to-head thing doesn't mean that much as it punishes a team that lost to a good team, while rewarding a team that lost to a bad team. When you add in that Auburn might have lost both of its big wins without controversial calls, I can't justify putting them above Florida. As far as the AP poll goes, I think they're overrating the Big East teams that have played no one a little bit, but that's to be expected. As they get tested more over the following weeks, I'm sure things will even out somewhat. I am very glad to see that they dropped USC below Michigan, because that was overdue. The Trojans have just been sloppy lately.

Really? I thought we found that out about a month ago. This looked more like a case of some teams just slipping a little bit in the second place sweepstakes.

Honestly, I think Louisville loses to Rutgers. It's the week immediately after the West Virginia game and it's on the road. And you know how well Louisville deals with road letdown games. I have no idea who it's going to be, but I think a one-loss team's going to be facing OSU in the title game.

OK, I should technically wait until tomorrow since Boise hasn't played yet, but since you all got deprived last week, I'm putting out my new Top 25 now. FWIW, I did do one last week on Sunday night, but I was in Vegas and I didn't get around to posting it. (Previous week's ranking in parenthesis) 1. Ohio State 7-0 (1) 2. Michigan 7-0 (2) 3. USC 6-0 (4) 4. Florida 6-1 (3) 5. Auburn 6-1 (12) 6. Tennessee 5-1 (6) 7. Texas 6-1 (7) 8. Louisville 6-0 (5) 9. West Virginia 6-0 (8) 10. California 6-1 (9) 11. Notre Dame 5-1 (10) 12. LSU 5-2 (12) 13. Boise State 6-0 (14) 14. Georgia Tech 5-1 (15) 15. Clemson 6-1 (16) 16. Nebraska 6-1 (18) 17. Arkansas 5-1 (19) 18. Oregon 6-1 (20) 19. Rutgers 6-0 (NR) 20. Missouri 6-1 (13) 21. Oklahoma 4-2 (21) 22. Boston College 5-1 (NR) 23. Wisconsin 6-1 (25) 24. Florida State 4-2 (NR) 25. Texas A&M 6-1 (NR) Close: Alabama, Miami, Georgia, Wake Forest, South Carolina

Kinda expected I'd drop when I saw I had just about the worst winning score in the contest. Guess I'll just have to get more picks right next week.

I would have lost my matchup by tiebreaker if they'd just kicked an extra point. Since they didn't, I'm going to 5-2.

I think Leak just fell apart in the 4th quarter, possibly because he was looking over his shoulder at Tebow. Regardless of whether it was a pass or not, it was still a terrible play on Leak's part. WTF is he doing just holding the ball out in front of him down by 1 in FG range. Either throw it or tuck it in. Don't just hold it asking for the defender to take it away. Then the first play of the next drive, he throws a terrible pick. His receiver was a good 15 yards from where he threw it, and there was another defender covering him there too. I really think it's the Tebow effect, because Leak looked like he was starting to develop a rhythym, but whenever Tebow came in, he followed up with a terrible throw the next play.

FUCK FUCK FUCK! That last bullshit TD by Auburn just cost me $800.

A little of both I guess. I mean, yes I'll be in jail, but it's just a 24-hour stint, so no biggie.

Yeah, I had BC at +2.5 (+100) and the 1st half line on Clemson -23.5, so I'm already 2-0. I'm going to miss most of Saturday's games though because I have to go to jail.

Because people didn't stop to actually analyze who they'd played this year (read: no one but Georgia Tech), and figured "they're a one-loss ranked team with a big name. They should be able to beat BC." I figured BC would win by 5 or 6, but I didn't think it would be a slaughter like that. Virginia Tech's actually worse than I thought, and if I were to guess, I'd say they'll probably finish 3-5 in the ACC, beating UVA, but losing to Clemson, Miami, and Wake.

If Michigan beats OSU at the Horseshoe, that will be far and away the best win in the country this year, and all they need to be #1 in both polls going into the championship game. The winner of that game doesn't even need to worry about SOS or rankings or anything like that. They're playing a playoff game (assuming neither loses), and the winner of it's in. Meanwhile, USC's probably next in line with a free pass as they're currently #2 in both polls that matter, the computers love them, and they've got their three toughest games ahead of them. However, I don't see them beating Cal right now. The Golden Bears have been on an absolute roll since losing to Tennnessee, and with how vulnerable USC's looked lately, I think Cal could get it done, even on the road. So that would make OSU/Florida the best guess for the title game right now, as I don't the Gators losing to Auburn, Georgia, or Florida State. Not that it couldn't happen, just that I don't see it. Making it out of the SEC undefeated will get them in ahead of any team other than OSU/USC/UM. If Florida loses too, you've always got the WVU/UL winner. With their schedules, the winner of that game should make it through undefeated, although Rutgers will be a huge trap game for the Cardinals the week after playing WVU. If all those teams lose, then it's up in the air again with Tennessee, Cal, Notre Dame, and Texas as well as the above-mentioned teams all having a shot with one loss, and even Boise having an off-chance of sneaking in undefeated. Also, while it's extremely unlikely for them to make it through the slate undefeated, Missouri still has a chance and would definitely get into the title game over any one-loss teams if they make it by Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Texas. They might even get in ahead of an undefeated Louisville or West Virginia. Rutgers I'm not even going to bother with as there's no way they make it through both Navy and Pitt, let alone both WVU and Louisville.

Yeah, I don't see how they'd end up in the BCS championship game over an undefeated USC team. Even if they move up to #2 after beating Auburn next week, USC will just take the spot back if they beat Oregon, Cal, and Notre Dame.

Bumped since I watched the second episode recorded after getting back from Vegas. They took it a little slower, not developing the main story too much, but the characters are still really interesting and I certainly wasn't bored at any point. I also liked that they toned down the sister a little bit as she wasn't half as annoying as in the first ep. If I had one complaint, it would be that they gave away too much in the previews for the next episodes. It looks like it's basically a summary for the whole season as now, not only have they given away that , we also know that I mean they're both really interesting ideas that I'd love to see executed, but how much can there really be left that we don't know about the shape of the season. It seems like that's enough to be major cliffhangers in at least two episodes and they gave them away in the previews.

Well, this was another episode that was good enough to keep hope going at least. Sawyer was a little better this episode, the Jin/Sun flashback was moderately interesting, and the Red Sox ending was fucking cool. It totally smacked of Abrams and if he's back in board, this show might get good again after all. Actually, "Ben" is fast becoming my favorite character on the show. He's got that cool vibe that Locke had that Jack is just missing altogether.

I was just talking to someone who was grieving before reading this story, so I was thinking about it from the perspective of the grieving teammates rather than Lidle being struck down. I'm definitely sad to see him go though. I've followed his career fairly closely and been a fan of his ever since he was on my fantasy teams a couple years in a row.

You actually said the point that I was going to make: of course they have a lot of filler ... they have a lot of time to fill. They kind of HAVE to fill some time. And you say "waiting for something to happen". There is something happening relatively consistently. Maybe not the exact things you are looking for, iggy, but there are answers being provided and "things happening" pretty regularly. In terms of the actions of the three captives. Jack's alpha male persona sucks, always has and always will in my eyes. But Kate had every reason to be a bitch - I'm guessing that most people would be stand-off-ish if they were held against their will by people with guns and asked to put themselves in handcuffs before eating an ocean-front breakfast. And why would you expect Sawyer to "develop" in the 80 (estimated) days that they've been on the island? Especially since he didn't develop in the 30+ years prior to the crash?!? Maybe because he started developing toward the end of Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2 before the writers decided that his initial persona was easier to write for. It was a big part of the whole "fresh start" thing that he didn't have to be hateful toward the outside world and could open up a little bit. Kate especially was someone he'd developed a close emotional bond with and he should be expressing at least some legitimate concern when first seeing her after they'd both been abducted. It's not a huge thing, but in a series where character development is the focus, nothing annoys me more than when they develop a character and then regress them and make them one-dimensional because they're not smart enough to think of anywhere else for the character to go.

Didn't you read what I said? I said even though it obviously wasn't their fault, his teammates are probably blaming themselves and feeling guilty. I was just saying that the timing would make it that much harder on them knowing that they were supposed to be playing in the ALCS right now.

That's crazy. The weird thing is looking at it from his teammates perspective, thinking that if they'd just played a little better, he'd be with the team still playing instead of dead. I mean you can't really think of it that way, and maybe he would have tried to fly somewhere as soon as the season was over and crashed anyway, but if i was A-Rod, I'd be feeling really guilty right now.

Citizen Kane was three hours long. The whole Star Wars trilogy was maybe 8 hours. 5 seasons of Lost adds up to about 125 hours. That's an awful long time to go waiting for something to happen. The fact is that right now, Lost has a lot of unnecessary filler, and honestly, the only thing I found interesting in the premiere was the first scene. The whole prison thing could have been covered in 15 minutes tops, so we could see what was happening on the other side of the island too. Oh, and the "rebelling against the others" thing was fucking stupid too. Jack was an idiot for being all bitchy, refusing to eat, and opening the underwater hatch door. Kate was being even more of a bitch when she acted like she was being raped because she got fresh clothes and a nice meal. Oh, and Sawyer's "cute sarcastic" act was way overdone as you'd think at this point, he would have developed enough that he'd at least have an emotional response to seeing Kate rather than trying to reprise what he was doing at the beginning of Season 1. Honestly, I'm more interested in what's going to happen next on Dexter, Earl, Office, and Weeds than I am in what's going to happen on Lost. Lost is kind of at the point where Raw used to be where I'd just watch it out of habit, and in the hope that it would be like the show I used to love before I finally gave up on it.

I like the Cards in 7 here. Carpenter should be able to win two against Trachsel and Oliver Perez is pretty much a guaranteed loss for NY. I'm not expecting Weaver to pick up a game against Glavine, but I do think that Suppan should be good for at least a split. BTW, if you were Willie Randolph, wouldn't you switch to a 3-man rotation for this series? I think sending Glavine to the mound three times would give them a lot better shot at winning the series than letting Perez get a start.

Ooh, that's tough that you got backdoored on the Hawaii game. Last I saw it, Hawaii was rolling. Don't get too discouraged about a 2-4 week though. Even winning sports bettors will go through stretches where they miss 6 and 7 games in a row at some point.

Don't forget about the conference that has the two best teams in all the land right now (Ohio State and Michigan). Penn State, Wisconsin, and Iowa are all pretty decent too.

Wow, I was just thinking how I'd blown my spot in the rankings with such a bad week, but I actually moved from 10th to 7th. That's awesome.

What the hell happened to Auburn? I know Arkansas's not this good.