Week 8 Picks

Last week there were a few mini upsets. Teams that were on the bubble and needed wins ended up beating teams that were expected to win. I went 7-7 last week and was a victim of these small upsets.
This week is an interesting week for football. Eli Manning and the New York Giants head to London to play in the first ever European NFL game. The Miami Dolphins travel to London as well, but we can expect the same outcome as if they were playing in the States. NYG will slaughter the Dolphins. Its a good move, going to London, however the teams should be of a Patriots-Colts caliber. Why send a crummy team overseas to represent American Football? Lets show the British why we love the sport so much, not give them a pity match.

Anyway here are my picks for this week:

Sunday:
Chicago over Detroit
Pittsburgh over Cincinnati
Tennessee over Oakland
Cleveland over St. Louis
New York Giants over Miami
Minnesota over Philadelphia
Indianapolis over Carolina (however as a fan I think Carolina wins it)
Buffalo over New York Jets
San Diego over Houston
Tampa Bay over Jacksonville
New England over Washington
New Orleans over San Fransisco

Monday:
Green Bay over Denver

The Mind's Record:
Last week- 7-7
Overall- 59-44

Say Goodbye to the BCS

In 2004 the BCS ended in controversy when the coaches poll ranked Oklahoma number 1 and awarded them the National title. However LSU won the BCS title game and was awarded the National title. For the first time in history the college football world had a tie for the best team in the country. Ever since people have tried to do away with the BCS and are looking for a new way earn the national title.

Here’s the solution, oh and the 1-A sub championship teams use a similar method:
Playoffs! There are currently 12 conferences in the country and so your first round will consist of 12 conference champions and 4 at large teams. These conference champions currently consist of teams such as Boston College, Ohio State, LSU, Hawaii, Arizona State, and Oklahoma. All of these teams deserve a chance to show the world that there are as good as Ohio State and that they could beat them if given the chance. Hawaii, because of conference and schedule commitments, has yet to play anyone tough this year and they will continue to play lower caliber teams. Yet who is to say that undefeated Hawaii couldn’t keep with Ohio State or LSU? And after all the loses highly ranked teams have suffered this year, don’t you think someone deserves a chance to out do the number one team in the country?

Here’s how it would work. The last week of the season would end, and the following Monday the final poll of the season would come out. The teams would also be ranked in the conferences. The top team in each of the 12 conference would automatically make the playoffs. After taking those 12 teams out of the national rankings you would then add the next 4 highest ranked teams into the 4 at large bids. Based on the current national polls and the conference standings this is how the bracket would look:

The playoffs would take place the Saturday following the last week of the regular schedule and would run for a period of 5 straight weeks. A few critics of this system argue that the players who are eligible for the NFL draft couldn’t declare because they would still be in season. This is not a problem because the baseball playoffs run even longer than five weeks and players who are competing in the College World Series have often already been drafted by a MLB team. Football can work the exact same way.

So my question is why not? The draft isn’t affected and the season becomes more interested, and for once we will have a true National Champion!

World Series 2007!

This years World Series looks to be as good as any of the others. While the Rockies are not the Yankees, they have recently played like the Yankees of old. Over the last 21 games the Rockies have gone 20-1. However, the Boston Redsox began to beat teams that play Yankees’ caliber ball, starting in 2004. That fall the Redsox beat the Yankees and reached the World Series for the first time since trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

While the Rockies have looked like they are Yankee-esq, they are far from being the team to dethrone the Redsox this year. The AL won the all-star game in July and thus Boston will have the home field advantage for this series. For the first two games, and, based on my upcoming prediction, the 6th game of the series, Colorado will have to deal with using a DH. This may not seem like a deal, however the BoSox stack their lineup with not only a heavy hitting group of fielders, but also with a powerhouse that hits only. David Ortiz focuses solely on hitting, while no matter whom the Rockies add to replace their pitcher in the lineup, no one on the Rockies is a hitter all the time. Not to mention the fact that the players available to the Colorado manager are bench warmers, people who can not play the field, much less are not hitting everyday. Without the bats you cant score runs, the Rockies just don’t have the bats for this match up.

The Boston Redsox have been here before. The Colorado Rockies, well, not in a long time! That isn’t everything; however the lack of experience is a problem. How can you have a leader step up and rally your team when you get down if he hasn’t seen these situations before? When you end up heading for your home field down in the series 0-2, who will step to the plate and say “I have been here before and this is how we have to handle the situation”? The answer- No One! The Rockies do not have the experience needed to pull on their past games and situations.

These two items can not be measured in stats, and that’s a good thing. It’s what you can’t measure that wins you ball games. The stats tend to favor one team over the other, but at this point the stats you have had to put up to earn a chance to play in the world series, are so even with your opponent, that you can rely on them at all. Not to mention this is baseball, comparing stats doesn’t work. The wrong guy can have a good game; the right pitcher can have a tingle that throws off his arm. The slightest change in the game shifts momentum like in no other sport. Based on intangibles the BoSox win their second title in three years.

The Mind’s Pick:
Boston has a 67% chance of beating Colorado for the World Series Title. Here’s how they do it~

Boston wins first two at home
Colorado wins two at home and loses the third
Boston wins game six at home and takes the series 4-2

Boston over Colorado (4-2)

Week 7 Picks

Last week I went 8-5 and increased my overall record to 52-37. My biggest upset was picking Dallas over New England. This week looks to be a pretty easy week. All the records and statistics point to clear winners and all the methods of simulating games, are in agreement with the experts choices. The closest game this week is going to be Tennessee at Houston.

Sunday:
Houston over Tennessee
Tampa Bay over Detroit
New Orleans over Atlanta
(While out of the playoffs, New Orleans is in great shape to salvage the season)
Baltimore over Buffalo
New York Giants over San Francisco
Washington over Arizona
(Both are coming off losses and the Redskins look to compete for a spot in the playoffs this year. In order to make a case for a NFC bid they need to win this game and improve to 4-2. I give Washington a 75% chance in this game.)
New England over Miami
Oakland over Kansas City
Cincinnati over New York Jets
Dallas over Minnesota
Philadelphia over Chicago
St. Louis over Seattle
Pittsburgh over Denver

Monday:
This week I picked against the national consensus and I am going with the slight underdog. I think Peyton Manning is too good for the defense of Jacksonville.
Indianapolis over Jacksonville

The Mind’s Record:
8-5 Last week
52-37 Overall

1 Team 1 Season: Purdue Football James Shepherd

There has been a lot going on, over the past two weeks, for Purdue Football. Two weeks ago they were handed their first loss by, the now #1, Ohio State Buckeyes. The Boilermakers then gave up their second lost to Michigan. Unfortunately, after a quick visit to the top 25, Purdue will remain unranked for the remainder of the season, and most likely be left out of all the bowl games. Despite these set backs the Boilermakers are back in business and will again show us what we saw in the first few games.

This week Purdue hosts Iowa. The Hawkeyes come to West Lafayette with a record of 3-4 and 1-3 on the road. Iowa is also only 1-3 in conference play. Purdue is 5-2 and 3-1 at home.

Curtis Painter has a completion rate of 63.2 and has thrown for 1923 yards and 19 touchdowns. His nemesis the week is Jake Christensen, who has thrown for a completion percentage of 55.8 and 1334 yards with 11 touchdowns.

Purdue also leads Iowa in Total average yards (444.1 to 336.3), passing yards (avg. 305.1 to 214.7), average rushing yards (139.0 to 121.6) and points scored (36.4 to 16.3)

The Mind’s Pick for this week:
Purdue over Iowa

Coming Saturday:
NFL Week 7 picks

Sunday’s thoughts:
NCAAFB Playoffs- Say goodbye BCS!

Also in the works:
MLBWS predictions
Steroids in Texas High School Football

Week 6 Picks

Sunday:
Cincinnati over Kansas City
Jacksonville over Houston
Cleveland over Miami
Washington over Green Bay
Baltimore over St. Louis
Chicago over Minnesota
Philadelphia over New York Jets
Tampa Bay over Tennessee
Carolina over Arizona (with either David Carr or Vinny Testaverde)
Dallas over New England
Tony Romo leads the #1 offense in football against the #2 defense. Dallas has the home field advantage. Both teams are undefeated, and we all no what happened to the undefeated Colts last year in Dallas; they left with a loss. This is the best game of the year and will be the game of the year. We are only in week 6! The only thing better would be if Dallas met New England in the Super Bowl.



San Diego over Oakland
Seattle over New Orleans

Monday:
New York Giants over Atlanta

The Mind’s record:
Last Week: 10-4
Overall: 44-32

1 Team 1 Season: Purdue Football with James Shepherd

As much as I can say about last week’s game, I will hold my tongue. Purdue played their game, at their pace, and once again routed their competition. I will say no more on that topic; Notre Dame deserves a break from the criticism.

This week’s game however will not be an easy one for the Boilermakers. I could predict an upset this week, and I think it is possible, but I will not be picking Purdue over Ohio State. This is sad for me.

Purdue has worked hard this year. They have won every game they were supposed to, and they have wiped the field with teams that should have had a chance to hand the Boilermakers a loss. Today Ohio State comes to town in hopes to remain undefeated and continue to argue for a spot in the BCS bowl game.

But wait, Purdue is undefeated as well. Purdue is in the top 25. Purdue is at home. Purdue is arguing for a chance to win a title. Purdue has an amazing Quarterback who is proving to be an NFL caliber player and can hang with the likes of Todd Boeckman. Not to mention the guys who catch and run the ball for Purdue. Dorien Bryant, Kory Sheets and Dustin Keller, to me are better players and better known players, than the guys at Ohio State. Maybe I am too biased, but I think Purdue has more talent. However Ohio State plays a better style of football, and can put a more fluid team on the field. Great talent doesn’t always equal a great team and a great team doesn’t always equal great talent.

Don’t get me wrong, Purdue has great talent and has made itself a really good team, but Ohio State is number 4 in the nation. Today is Purdue’s chance to prove that they are not just a good team but a great team.

This week look for the game to finally be a close one. There will be plenty of nail biting on both teams today. I think that Purdue can upset Ohio State, however I don’t think today is the day.

The Mind’s Pick:
It could go either way, and it will be close. Ohio State over Purdue.

Week 5 Pick's

Last Weeks record: 5-9
Season Total: 34-28

This Weeks Pick’s
Sunday:
Houston over Miami
Kansas City over Jacksonville
New England over Cleveland
Carolina over New Orleans
NY Giants over NY Jets
Pittsburgh over Seattle
Arizona over St. Louis
Atlanta over Tennessee
Washington over Detroit
Indianapolis over Tampa Bay
Denver over San Diego
Baltimore over San Francisco
Green Bay over Chicago

Monday:
Dallas over Buffalo

This week's byes: Cincinnati, Minnesota, Oakland, Philadelphia

Michael Vick's Bonuses

This Week Michael Vick and his lawyers are dealing with whether or not he owes the Atlanta Falcons his signing bonuses. The hearing started today and will continue into next week.

I don’t know why this hearing is scheduled for a week; it’s an easy fix. Pay back the same percentage of games you will be missing. If Vick has completed 60% of his contract then he owes the Falcons 40% of his signing bonuses. How is this hard? If you promise to sign a contract with guaranteed a period time you will stay with the team, and it’s your fault that you can’t complete your promised time; then you obviously owe that team the money they gave you for making that promise.

The real issue is what should the Falcons do with the money Vick pays back? That’s easy for me as well. The Falcons have done nothing wrong in the issue with Vick; however people and organizations will always view them as somewhat responsible. The Falcons need to take Vick’s bonuses and donate them to two different groups.

The first Group should be a national Pit-bull Rescue Organization. Breed specific rescue agencies are non profit groups and rely solely on donations from people and organizations. The second organization should be the USSPCA. The national SPCA works like a rescue group, only they focus on all animals, not just dogs, or specific breeds of animals. The Falcons can save their image and actually grow from the experience if they take the time to say “We, as an NFL team, should have monitored our players more. We know that what has happened cannot be reverse, but our front office, our staff, and our players would like to commit to helping stop this from happening in the future. Our first step is donating Michael Vick’s bonuses to these to agencies.” Vick is done, I believe he should never play again, but the Falcons will grow and become a great team once more. They have enough money, why don’t they put some where it is needed.