The Option

Must-See TV Update

2006-08-02T11:07:00.000-05:00

The TV Schedule below is fully updated as of August 1. I'll continue to update it on that post. Even more exciting, the month of August and the beginning of fall camps look to provide the impetus to get the Option content-filled once again. Keep checking back.

Must See TV (Updated as of August 1)

2006-05-31T16:10:00.000-05:00

I love that we're to the point that I'm able to piece together something close to a comprehensive 2006 college football schedule that includes a lot of television information.

There's nothing better than picking a Saturday and envisioning the games you'll be watching as you work up to the Husker game that particular day.

Here's what we have so far, with as much TV information as I can find. A few things to note;

-Obviously, this is not a comprehensive list of games or even televised games. I've tried to put every game on here that I would have even a passing interest in--that would cover probably 75-80% of all games that are scheduled each week. Also, TV schedules will be updating constantly even up until the week before games as the season moves on, so I'll be sure to keep this updated.

-I first have listed every game that has a confirmed time. For games that are still TBA as to time I've put them in descending order as to how "televisable" the game is--giving you, the reader, an estimate as to the other viewing options that will likely be out there each weekend.

-I've also asterisked 5 games each week (for purposes of this, I consider a CFB week to start on Tuesday) as my five must-see games.

-All times CST

-Games indicated as (ESPN Plus), (ABC Regional) or (Gameplan) are available to people who subscribe to the ESPN gameplan package, which I hope to do. These games are usually offered in local areas on network stations or basic cable service.

Thursday, August 31
Boston College at Central Michigan 5:00 p.m. (ESPN2)
FIU at MTSU 6 p.m. (Gameplan)
Northwestern at Miami, OH 6:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
South Carolina at Mississippi St. 7 p.m. (ESPN)
Eastern Washington at Oregon St. 9:00 p.m. (FSNNW)
Northern Arizona at Arizona St. 9:00 p.m. (FSNAZ)
UTEP at San Diego St. 9:30 p.m. (CSTV)
Toledo at Iowa State
Syracuse at Wake Forest
Minnesota at Kent St.
Temple at Buffalo

Friday, September 1
Nevada at Fresno St. 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

Saturday, September 2
Vanderbilt at Michigan 11 a.m. (ESPN)
Montana at Iowa 11 a.m. (ESPNU)
UNT at Texas 11 a.m. (FSN)
Idaho at Michigan St. 11 a.m. (ESPN Gameplan)
Western Kentucky at Georgia 11:30 a.m. (ESPN Gameplan)
Stanford at Oregon 2:30 p.m. (ABC Regional)
Rutgers at North Carolina 2:30 p.m. (ABC Regional)
Northern Illinois at Ohio St. 2:30 p.m. (ABC Regional)
Akron at Penn St. 2:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
Louisiana Tech at Nebraska 2:30 p.m. (FSN)
Marshall at West Virginia 2:30 p.m. (ESPN Gameplan)
FAU at Clemson 2:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
East Carolina at Navy 4:30 p.m. (CSTV)
*Cal at Tennessee 4:30 p.m. (ESPN)
*Southern Miss at Florida 5 p.m.
Virginia at Pitt 6 p.m. (ESPNU)
UAB at Oklahoma 6 p.m. (TBS)
Wisconsin vs. Bowling Green 6 p.m. (@Cleveland, OH) (Gameplan)
Hawaii at Alabama 6 p.m. (ESPN Gameplan)
Utah at UCLA 6 p.m. (FSN)
Washington St. at Auburn 6:45 p.m. (ESPN2)
*Notre Dame at Georgia Tech 7 p.m. (ABC)
*USC at Arkansas 7:45 p.m. (ESPN)
Houston at Rice 8 p.m. (CSTV)
BYU at Arizona 9:15 p.m. (TBS)
SMU at Texas Tech
Western Michigan at Indiana
Louisville at Temple

Sunday, September 3
Memphis at Mississippi 2:30 p.m. (ESPN)
TCU at Baylor 4:30 p.m. (FSN)
Kentucky at Louisville 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Monday, September 4
Florida St. at Miami 7 p.m. (ESPN)*

Thursday, September 7
Oregon St. at Boise St. 6:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Friday, September 8
Pitt at Cincinnati 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

Saturday, September 9
Nichols St. at Nebraska TBA
Virginia Tech at North Carolina 11 a.m. (ESPN)
Illinois at Rutgers 11 a.m. (ESPN2)
Akron at NC St. 11 a.m. (ESPNU)
Duke at Wake Forest 11 a.m. (ESPN Gameplan)
Central Michigan at Michigan 11 a.m. (Gameplan)
Mississippi at Missouri 11:30 a.m. (FSN)
Auburn at Mississippi St. 11:30 a.m. (ESPN Gameplan)
Kent St. at Army, 12 p.m. (ESPN Classic)
UMASS at Navy 12:30 p.m. (CSTV)
*Clemson at Boston College 2:30 p.m. (ABC Regional)
Iowa at Syracuse 2:30 p.m. (ABC Regional)
Washington at Oklahoma 2:30 p.m. (ABC Regional)
*Penn St. at Notre Dame 2:30 p.m. (NBC)
Western Illinois at Wisconsin 2:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
Vanderbilt at Alabama 2:30 p.m. (FSN South)
Eastern Michigan at Michigan St. 2:30 p.m. (Gameplan)
Colorado vs. Colorado St. (@ Denver) 4 p.m. (CSTV)
Troy at Florida St. 5 p.m. (Gameplan)
Central Florida at Florida 5 p.m. (Gameplan)
*Arizona at LSU 5:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
Minnesota at Cal 6 p.m. (TBS)
Air Force at Tennessee 6 p.m. (Gameplan)
Oklahoma St. vs. Arkansas St. (@Little Rock) 6 p.m. (ESPN2)
Iadho at Washington S. 6 p.m. (FSN NW)
*Georgia at South Carolina 6:45 p.m. (ESPN)
*Ohio St. at Texas 7 p.m. (ABC)
Texas Tech at UTEP 8 p.m. (CSTV)
Nevada at Arizona St. 9 p.m. (FSN Arizona)
Oregon at Fresno St. 9 p.m. (ESPN2)
Rice at UCLA 9 p.m. (FSNW)
Stanford at San Jose St. 9:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
Wyoming at Virginia
UNLV at Iowa St.
UCF at Florida
Vanderbilt at Alabama
FAU at Kansas St.
La.-Lafayette at Texas A & M
La.-Monroe at Kansas
Toledo at Western Michigan
Buffalo at Bowling Green
Ohio at Northern Illinois

Thursday, September 14
Maryland at West Virginia 6:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Friday, September 15
Kansas at Toledo 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

Saturday, September 16
BYU at Boston College 11 a.m. (ESPN2)
Iowa St. at Iowa 11 a.m. (ESPN)
Duke at Virginia Tech 11 a.m. (ESPN Gameplan)
Syracuse at Illinois 11 a.m. (ESPNU)
Cincinnati at Ohio St. 11 a.m. (ESPN Gameplan)
Marshall at Kansas St. 11:30 a.m. (FSN)
Arkansas at Vanderbilt 11:30 a.m. (ESPN Gameplan)
USF at UCF 1:30 p.m. (CSTV)
*Michigan at Notre Dame 2:30 p.m. (NBC)
Oklahoma at Oregon 2:30 p.m. (ABC Regional)
*Miami at Louisville 2:30 p.m. (ABC Regional)
Michigan St. at Pitt 2:30 p.m. (ABC Regional)
*LSU at Auburn 2:30 p.m. (CBS)
Youngstown St. at Penn St. 2:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
San Diego St. at Wisconsin 2:30 p.m. (ESPN Gameplan)
Texas Tech at TCU 4:30 p.m. (Versus f.k.a. OLN)
Texas at Rice 5 p.m. (ESPN2)
Fresno St. at Washington 5:30 p.m. (FSNNW)
Furman at North Carolina 6 p.m. (ESPNU)
La-Monroe at Alabama 6 p.m. (ESPN Gameplan)
Arizona St. at Colorado 6 p.m. (TBS)
Nichols St. at Louisiana Tech 6 p.m. (Gameplan)
*Clemson at Florida St. 6:45 p.m. (ESPN)
*Florida at Tennessee 7 p.m. (CBS)
Nebraska at USC 7 p.m. (ABC)
Army vs. Texas A & M (@San Antonio) 8:15 p.m. (ESPN2)
Navy at Stanford 9 p.m. (FSN BAL)
Stephen F. Austin at Arizona 9 p.m. (FSN AZ)
NC State at Southern Miss
UAB at Georgia
Mississippi at Kentucky
Boise St. at Wyoming
Troy at Georgia Tech
Western Michigan at Virginia
Baylor vs. Washington St. (@Seattle)
FAU at Oklahoma St.
Temple at Minnesota
Wake Forest at UCONN
Troy at Georgia Tech
Colorado St. at Nevada
Fresno St. at Washington
Tulane at Mississippi St.
Buffalo at Northern Illinois
Ohio at Rutgers

Thursday, September 21st
Virginia at Georgia Tech 6:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Friday, September 22nd
Northwestern at Nevada 7:00 p.m. (ESPN2)

Saturday, September 23
Troy at Nebraska
Tulsa at Navy 12:30 p.m. (CSTV)
UTEP at New Mexico 4 p.m. (CSTV)
*Notre Dame at Michigan St. 7 p.m. (ABC Regional)
USC at Arizona 7 p.m. (ABC Regional)
Oklahoma St. at Houston 8 p.m. (CSTV)
Idaho at Oregon St. 9 p.m. (FSNNW)
West Virginia at East Carolina TBA (ESPN Family)
*Iowa St. at Texas
*Colorado at Georgia
Louisville at Kansas St.
*Ohio St. at Penn St.
Alabama at Arkansas
Wisconsin at Michigan
*Arizona St. at Cal
Kentucky at Florida
North Carolina at Clemson
UCLA at Washington
Boston College at NC State
Washington St. at Stanford
Ohio at Missouri
Cincinnati at Virginia Tech
Iowa at Illinois
Minnesota at Purdue
NC State at Southern Miss
Marshall at Tennessee
Tulane at LSU
Wake Forest at Mississippi
Mississippi St. at UAB
Rice at Florida St.
West Virginia at East Carolina
Louisiana Tech at Texas A & M
MTSU at Oklahoma
UTEP at New Mexico
UCONN at Indiana
Buffalo at Auburn
Hawaii at Boise St.
Army at Baylor
USF at Kansas

Tuesday, September 26
Southern Miss at UCF 6:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

Thursday, September 28
BYU at TCU 5:00 p.m. (Versus)
*Auburn at South Carolina 6:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Friday, September 29
Rutgers at USF 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

Saturday, September 30
Kansas at Nebraska
Purdue at Notre Dame 1:30 p.m. (NBC)
Boise St. at Utah 2 p.m. (Versus)
Michigan at Minnesota 7 p.m. (ESPN, ESPN2, or ABC)
*Ohio St. at Iowa 7 p.m. (ESPN or ABC)
SMU at Tulane 8 p.m. (CSTV)
Rice at Army TBA (ESPN Family)
Tennessee at Memphis TBA (ESPN Family)
*Alabama at Florida
*Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech
Colorado at Missouri
Texas Tech at Texas A & M
USC at Washington St.
Michigan at Minnesota
*Oregon at Arizona St.
Mississippi St. at LSU
Kansas St. at Baylor
Georgia at Mississippi
Cal at Oregon St.
Stanford at UCLA
Washington at Arizona
Houston at Miami
Illinois at Michigan St.
West Virginia at Mississippi St.
Wisconsin at Indiana
Northwestern at Penn St.
Wyoming at Syracuse
Colorado St. at Fresno St.
Boise St. at Utah
Toledo at Pitt
New Mexico at Air Force
Louisiana Tech at Clemson
Rutgers at USF
Virginia at Duke
Miami (OH) at Cincinnati
Bowling Green at Ohio
Central Michigan at Kentucky

Tuesday, October 3
Southern Miss at Tulsa 6:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

Wednesday, October 4
UCF at Marshall 6:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

Thursday, October 5
*Florida St. at NC State 6:30 p.m. (ESPN)
TCU at Utah 8 p.m. (Versus)

Friday, October 6
Louisville vs. MTSU (@Nashville) 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

Saturday, October 7
Nebraska at Iowa St.
Navy at Air Force 1 p.m. (CSTV)
Stanford at Notre Dame 1:30 p.m. (NBC)
*Michigan St. at Michigan 3:30 p.m. (ESPN)
Virginia at East Carolina 5 p.m. (CSTV)
Louisiana Tech at Boise St. 6 p.m. (Gameplan)
Oregon at California 7 p.m. (ABC Regional)
*Texas vs. Oklahoma (@ Dallas)
*LSU at Florida
*Tennessee at Georgia
Penn St. at Minnesota
]Arkansas at Auburn
North Carolina at Miami
Missouri at Texas Tech
Bowling Green at Ohio St.
Purdue at Iowa
Washington at USC
Oklahoma St. at Kansas St.
Texas A & M at Kansas
Clemson at Wake Forest
Maryland at Georgia Tech
South Carolina at Kentucky
Baylor at Colorado
Cal at Washington St.
Northwestern at Wisconsin
Arizona at UCLA
Washington St. at Oregon St.
West Virginia at Mississippi St.
Duke at Alabama
Pitt at Syracuse
Navy at Air Force
Wyoming at New Mexico
Indiana at Illinois
Central Michigan at Toledo
Western Michigan at Ohio

Sunday, October 8
Northern Illinois at Miami (OH) 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Thursday, October 12
Virginia Tech at Boston College 6:30 p.m. (ESPN)
Temple at Clemson 6:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
Colorado State at Air Force 7 p.m. (CSTV) (??)

Friday, October 13
Pitt at UCF 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Saturday, October 14
Nebraska at Kansas St.
Rutgers at Navy 12:30 p.m. (CSTV)
UAB at Rice 5:00 p.m. (CSTV)
*Michigan at Penn St. 7 p.m. (ABC Regional)
*Arizona St. at USC 7 p.m. (ABC Regional)
New Mexico at UNLV 9 p.m. (CSTV)
*Florida at Auburn
*Iowa St. at Oklahoma
*Ohio St. at Michigan St.
Texas Tech at Colorado
Missouri at Texas A & M
Cincinnati at Louisville
UCLA at Oregon
Kentucky at LSU
Baylor at Texas
Cal at Washington St.
Mississippi at Alabama
Vanderbilt at Georgia
Oklahoma St. at Kansas
Oregon St. at Washington St.
USF at North Carolina
Utah at Wyoming
Syracuse at West Virginia
Arizona at Stanford
Maryland at Virginia
Minnesota at Wisconsin
Purdue at Northwestern
Hawaii at Fresno St.
Iowa at Indiana
Wake Forest at NC State
Florida St. at Duke
Rutgers at Navy
Pitt at UCF
Central Michigan at Illinois
Army at UCONN
Ohio at Illinois
Miami (OH) at Buffalo

Sunday, October 15
Boise St. at New Mexico St. 7:00 p.m. (ESPN)

Wednesday, October 18
La-Lafayette at FAU 6:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

Thursday, October 19
North Carolina at Virginia 6:30 p.m. (ESPN)
Bowling Green at Central Michigan 6:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
Utah at New Mexico

Friday, October 20
West Virginia at UCONN 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Saturday, October 21
*Texas at Nebraska
*UCLA at Notre Dame 1:30 p.m. (NBC)
Colorado St. at Wyoming 3 p.m. (CSTV)
SJSU at Nevada 6 p.m. (ESPN Gameplan)
Utah St. at La. Tech 6 p.m. (ESPN Gameplan)
Tulsa at Memphis 7 p.m. (CSTV)
*Fresno St. at LSU TBA (ESPN)
TCU at Army TBA (ESPN Family)
*Iowa at Michigan
*Alabama at Tennessee
Boston College at Florida St.
Colorado at Oklahoma
Georgia Tech at Clemson
Texas Tech at Iowa St.
Kansas St. at Missouri
Southern Miss at Virginia Tech
Indiana at Ohio St.
NC State at Maryland
Texas A & M at Oklahoma St.
Mississippi at Arkansas
Mississippi St. at Georgia
Michigan St. at Northwestern
Wisconsin at Purdue
Washington at Cal
South Carolina at Vanderbilt
Oregon at Washington St.
Stanford at Arizona St.
Oregon St. at Arizona
Kansas at Baylor
Louisville at Syracuse
Illinois at Penn St.
Rutgers at Pitt
Tulane at Auburn
Miami at Duke
USF at Cincinnati
UTEP at Houston
Colorado St. at Wyoming
Air Force at SDSU
Buffalo at Ohio

Sunday, October 22
USF at Cincinnati 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Thursday, October 26
*Clemson at Virginia Tech 6:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Friday, October 27
UTEP at Tulsa 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

Saturday, October 28
Nebraska at Oklahoma St.
Northwestern at Michigan 11 a.m. (ESPN or ABC)
Notre Dame at Navy 11 a.m. (CBS)
Syracuse at Cincinnati 11 a.m. (ESPN Gameplan)
BYU at Air Force 1 p.m. (Versus)
*Florida vs. Georgia (@Jacksonville) 2:30 p.m. (CBS)
Minnesota at Ohio St. 2:30 p.m. (ABC Regional)
UNLV at Utah 3 p.m. (CSTV)
Washington St. at UCLA 6 p.m. (ABC Regional)
East Carolina at Southern Miss 7 p.m. (CSTV)
La-Monroe at Arkansas TBA (ESPNU)
Notre Dame at Navy TBA (CBS)
*Texas at Texas Tech
*Miami at Georgia Tech
*Oklahoma at Missouri
USC at Oregon St.
Tennessee at South Carolina
Florida St. at Maryland
Penn St. at Purdue
Iowa St. at Kansas St.
Arizona St. at Washington
Washington St. at UCLA
Colorado at Kansas
Auburn at Mississippi
Northern Illinois at Iowa
Michigan St. at Indiana
Texas A & M at Baylor
Wake at North Carolina
Illinois at Wisconsin
BYU at Air Force
UCONN at Rutgers
New Mexico at Colorado St.
Army at Tulane
Buffalo at Boston College

Sunday, October 29
UCONN at Rutgers 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Tuesday, October 31
UAB at SMU 6:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

Wednesday, November 1
Fresno St. at Boise St. 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

Thursday, November 2
*West Virginia at Louisville 6:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Friday, November 3
Air Force at Army 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Saturday, November 4
Missouri at Nebraska
Pitt at USF 11 a.m. (Gameplan)
North Carolina at Notre Dame 1:30 p.m. (NBC)
Hawaii at Utah St. (Gameplan)
SDSU at Wyoming 3 p.m. (CSTV)
UCLA at Cal 7 p.m. (ABC Regional)
Tulane at Marshall 7 p.m. (CSTV)
*Virginia Tech at Miami
*Oklahoma at Texas A & M
*LSU at Tennessee
Kansas St. at Colorado
Virginia at Florida St.
Penn St. at Wisconsin
Kansas at Iowa St.
Oklahoma St. at Texas
Georgia Tech at NC State
USC at Stanford
Arkansas at South Carolina
Washington at Oregon
Purdue at Michigan St.
Northwestern at Iowa
Vanderbilt at Florida
*UCLA at Cal
Mississippi St. at Alabama
Arizona St. at Oregon St.
Georgia at Kentucky
Ohio St. at Illinois
Indiana at Minnesota
Arizona at Washington St.
Baylor at Texas Tech
Ball St. at Michigan
BYU at Colorado St.
Maryland at Clemson
Boston College at Wake Forest
Louisiana Tech at North Texas
Pitt at USF
Rice at UTEP
Navy at Duke

Sunday, November 5
Southern Miss at Memphis 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Tuesday, November 7
Toledo at Northern Illinois 6:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

Thursday, November 9
Buffalo at Akron 5 p.m. (ESPNU)
Louisville at Rutgers 6:30 p.m. (ESPN)
Wyoming at BYU 7 p.m. (CSTV)

Friday, November 10
UTEP at UAB 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
Western Michigan at Central Michigan (ESPNU or ESPN Classic)

Saturday, November 11
Nebraska at Texas A & M
Notre Dame at Air Force 3 p.m. (CSTV)
UCF at Memphis 7 p.m. (CSTV)
*Oregon at USC 9:15 p.m. (FSN)
*Texas Tech at Oklahoma
Alabama at LSU
*Texas at Kansas St.
*Georgia at Auburn
*South Carolina at Florida
Iowa St. at Colorado
Miami at Maryland
Ohio St. at Northwestern
Georgia Tech at North Carolina
Wisconsin at Iowa
Tennessee at Arkansas
Minnesota at Michigan St.
Oregon St. at UCLA
NC State at Clemson
Wake Forest at Florida St.
Washington St. at Arizona St.
Michigan at Indiana
Cal at Arizona
Baylor at Oklahoma St.
Stanford at Washington
TCU at New Mexico
Colorado St. at Utah
Kent St. at Virginia Tech
Purdue at Illinois
Cincinnati at West Virginia
Pitt at UCONN
Temple at Penn St.
Louisiana Tech at Hawaii
Southern Miss at Tulane

Tuesday, November 14
Ball St. at Toledo 6 p.m. (ESPN2)

Wednesday, November 15
Miami (OH) at Bowling Green 6:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

Thursday, November 16
West Virginia at Pitt 6:30 p.m. (ESPN)
Akron at Ohio 6:30 p.m. (ESPNU)

Friday, November 17
Central Michigan at Northern Illinois 6:30 p.m. (ESPNU)

Saturday, November 18
Temple at Navy 11:30 a.m. (CSTV)
Army at Notre Dame 1:30 p.m. (NBC)
*Auburn at Alabama 2:30 p.m. (CBS)
*Michigan at Ohio St. 2:30 p.m. (ABC)
Washington at Washington St. 5:45 p.m. (FSN)
*Cal at USC 7 p.m. (ABC Regional)
UAB at Southern Miss 7 p.m. (CSTV)
UCLA at Arizona St. 9:15 p.m. (FSN)
*Miami at Virginia
*Iowa at Minnesota
Michigan St. at Penn St.
Missouri at Iowa St.
Kansas St. at Kansas
Arizona at Oregon
NC State at North Carolina
Maryland at Boston College
Virginia Tech at Wake Forest
Mississippi at LSU
Indiana at Purdue
Illinois at Northwestern
Arkansas at Mississippi St.
Tennessee at Vanderbilt
Oklahoma at Baylor
Oklahoma St. at Texas Tech
USF at Louisville
Western Michigan at Florida St.
New Mexico at BYU
Duke at Georgia Tech
UAB at Southern Miss
Rutgers at Cincinnati
UCONN at Syracuse
UTEP at Marshall
Buffalo at Wisconsin
Utah at Air Force

Tuesday, November 21
Bowling Green at Toledo 6:00 p.m. (ESPN2)

Thursday, November 23
Boston College at Miami 6:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Friday, November 24
*Texas A &M at Texas 11 a.m. (ABC)
LSU at Arkansas 1:30 p.m. (CBS)
*Colorado at Nebraska 2:30 p.m. (ABC)
Oregon at Oregon St. 2:30 p.m. (FSN)
Air Force at UNLV 6 p.m. (CSTV)
Fresno St. at La. Tech 8 p.m. (ESPN2)
Tulane at Tulsa
Central Michigan at Buffalo

Saturday, November 25
Kansas at Missouri 11 a.m. (ABC)
*Oklahoma at Oklahoma St. 1:30 p.m. (FSN)
Georgia Tech at Georgia 2:30 p.m. (CBS)
BYU at Utah 2:30 p.m. (CSTV)
Arizona St. at Arizona 5 p.m. (FSN)
*Notre Dame at USC 7 p.m. (ABC)
Boise St. at Nevada TBA (ESPN2)
*Florida at Florida St.
South Carolina at Clemson
LSU at Arkansas
Virginia at Virginia Tech
Louisville at Pitt
Kentucky at Tennessee
Oregon at Oregon St.
Purdue at Hawaii
Mississippi St. at Mississippi
TCU at Colorado St.
Wake Forest at Maryland
North Carolina at Duke
USF at West Virginia
Cincinnati at UCONN
East Carolina at NC State
Syracuse at Rutgers
Marshall at Southern Miss
Memphis at UTEP
New Mexico at SDSU

Thursday, November 30
MAC Championship Game 6:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Saturday, December 2
ACC Championship Game, 12 p.m. (ABC)
Army vs. Navy 1:30 p.m. (CBS)
Stanford at Cal 2 p.m. (FSN)
USC at UCLA 3:30 p.m. (ABC)
Air Force at TCU 3:30 p.m. (CSTV)
SEC Championship Game 5:00 p.m. (CBS)
Big XII Championship Game 7 p.m. (ABC)
Colorado St. at San Diego st. 7 p.m. (CSTV)
C-USA Championship Game
UCONN at Louisville
Oregon St. at Hawaii
Fresno St. at SJSU
Rutgers at West Virginia

Hello Again

2006-05-30T13:39:00.000-05:00

With college football season less than 100 days away, its time to get TOB rolling again. I wasn't able to keep it rolling by myself during the spring, but with football lurking, that shouldn't be a problem.

I'm working on my TV schedule and should have it up very soon.

To keep you busy now: Check out my rankings database.

Arch Madness!!

2006-03-03T08:36:00.000-06:00

While that could possibly be the most annoying slogan I've ever heard, the MVC tournament gets underway in earnest today, and for anyone who gives a crap about the NCAA tournament, its definitely worth paying attention. As much as I hate all the love the MVC is getting this year, its really nice to have basketball that means something on TV (FSN) during my Friday afternoon, in case I'd make my lunch break a little longer than usual. What's even better is that if Creighton got knocked out today, they may have played themselves out of the NCAA tournmanet. This is just a little taste of what's coming. Next Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and the following Thursday-Friday are just blissful.

The bracket

The Schedule

12:05: #1 Wichita St. vs. #9 Indiana St.
2:35: #4 Creighton vs. #5 Bradley
6:05: #2 Southern Illinois vs. #7 Evansville
8:35: #3 Missouri St. vs. #6 UNI

Oh, and if you really don't give a crap about that, but still want something to make your afternoon fly by, there's Husker Baseball against Notre Dame, coverage starting on Pinnacle at 11:45.

Were you really surprised?

2006-03-02T08:44:00.000-06:00

Ever since a couple weeks ago, when it looked like Nebraska had climbed back on the bubble with an improbable win at Iowa State, I pointed to the KSU game at home as one that looked like the classic NU letdown game. The one game left on the schedule that looks like a gimme. You can always bank on Nebraska basketball following up an improbable win with an improbable loss.

In any case, its now worth looking at the standings to guage potential Big XII tournament matchups, if for no other reason than figuring out whether you'll need to take off work.

After Wednesday's games, all conference teams have exactly one game remaining:

Sat: KU @ KSU, aTm @ TT, ISU @ CU, Bay @ OSU
Sun: OU @ Tex, NU @ Mizz

Depending on the outcome of those games, Nebraska can land anywhere from the 5th seed to the 9th seed in Dallas.

Here's what each of those scenarios would look like:

NU gets the 5th Seed: If they beat Missouri and Colorado loses at home to Iowa State.
If this happens: Nebraska would turn around and face Missouri again at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday on ESPN+/ESPNU. If they win, they'd get a shot at aTm again at 2:00 p.m. on Friday.

NU gets the 6th Seed: If they beat Missouri and Colorado beats Iowa State OR if Nebraska loses to Missouri and Iowa St., Texas Tech and Kansas St. all lose their games this weekend.
If this happens: Nebraska would face Baylor at approximately 8:30 p.m. Thursday on ESPN2. If they win, they'd face the team that loses this Sunday's Oklahoma/Texas game, as that team will get the 3 seed.

NU gets the 7th Seed: If they lose to Missouri and one and only one of the following teams--Texas Tech, Kansas St., Iowa St.--win their game this weekend.
If this happens: Nebraska could face Oklahoma St., Kansas St. or Texas Tech at 6:00 on Thursday on ESPNU/ESPN+. If they would win, they'd have Kansas in the second round. Woo hoo!

NU gets the 8th Seed: If they lose to Missouri and two and only two of the following teams--Texas Tech, Kansas St., Iowa St.--win their game this weekend.
If this happens: Nebraska could face Iowa St., Kansas St. or Texas Tech at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday on ESPNU/ESPN+. If they win, they'd get the Texas/OU winner on Friday.

NU gets the 9th Seed: If they lose to Missouri and Texas Tech, Kansas St. and Iowa St. all win their games this weekend:
If this happens: Nebraska wold face Iowa ST. at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday on ESPNU/ESPN+. If they win, they'd get the Texas/OU winner on Friday.

Remaining Spots: The 2/28 Update

2006-02-28T16:43:00.000-06:00

Sure Single-Bid Conferences:

1. MAAC (Iona/Manhattan)
2. Big Sky (Northern Arizona/Montana)
3. Ohio Valley (Murray St.)
4. Southland (Northwestern St.)
5. Big South (Winthrop)
6. Southern (Georgia Southern)
7. Ivy (Penn)
8. Big West (Pacific)
9. Northeast (Fairliegh-Dickinson)
10. America East (Albany)
11. Mid-Continent (IUPUI)
12. Atlantic sun (Lipscomb/Belmont)
13. MEAC (Deleware St.)
14. SWAC (Southern)
15. Horizon (Wis-Mil)
16. MAC (Akron)

The next two spots are a little tricky. Both Bucknell and WKU will be right on the bubble if they lose in their conference tournaments, especially in the championship. Thus, I'll list them as their conference favorite, but also put them on the bubble.

17. Sun Belt (Western Kentucky)
18. Patriot (Bucknell)

Then there are the teams that have already sewn up a bid, but are the only teams in their conferences that have done so. If these teams do not win their Conference Tournaments, they'll still be in, but there will be one less bubble spot available due to the automatic bid.

19. Gonzaga (West Coast)
20. George Mason (Colonial)
21. Memphis (C-USA)
22. George Washington (A-10)
23. Nevada (WAC)

Then, the teams from sure multi-bid conferences that have wrapped up their spot:

24. Illinois
25. Indiana
26. Wisconsin
27. Michigan St.
28. Ohio St.
29. Michigan
30. Villanova
31. Pitt
32. UCONN
33. WVU
34. Georgetown
35. Marquette
36. Duke
37. Boston College
38. NC State
39. North Carolina
40. Florida
41. Tennessee
42. LSU
43. Alabama
44. Texas
45. Oklahoma
46. Kansas
47. UNI
48. Wichita St.
49. Missouri St.
50. UCLA
51. Arizona
52. Washington

So now, we've only got 13 spots remaining. Here are the teams currently on the bubble vying for those spots:

Indiana
Cincy
Syracuse
Seton Hall
Florida St.
Kentucky
Arkansas
Colorado
aTm
Southern Illinois
Creighton
Bradley
Cal
Air Force
SDSU
BYU
Utah St.
UAB
Houston
UTEP
UNC-Wilmington
Hofstra

That's 22 teams for 13 spots.

Pre Weekend Bubble Roundup

2006-02-23T10:23:00.000-06:00

After a lot of NCAA Bubble-relevant games the last few days, its worth taking a look at which teams made significant strides or falls during the week as we head into the weekend:

Up off the bubble? (teams closer to becoming a lock)

Syracuse: Back to back wins against L'Ville and Monday against West Virginia now get them over .500 in the Big East and an RPI at 30. If they go 2-1 in their final 3, I think they're a lock.

Michigan: Win over Illinois Tuesday assures them at least .500 conference record and a big RPI move. Looking really good.

Kentucky: Hard to tell how important the three wins in a row against SEC also-rans will be. The next three games could be a mess (@LSU, @Tenn, Fla). Lose all three and Kentucky will be sweating on Selection Sunday. One win in those games combined with a tourney win should be enough though.

Down off the bubble? (teams that may have played themselves out of any shot)

Seton Hall: Losses to Notre Dame and now to St. John's back to back may have done them in. With an RPI at 52, they may be able to play themselves back in.

Maryland: Loss at FSU may have been an elimination game. They'll have to pull at least one upset to get to .500 in conference. With a lot of other ACC teams moving up, Maryland is in big trouble.

Up on the bubble? (teams that might now get some consideration)

Arkansas: There may be RPI issues, but they've almost guaranteed themselves a .500+ record in the SEC with recent wins against Florida and Alabama.

Texas A & M: 4 wins in a row now, the latest at Missouri. Everyone keeps looking for a fourth Big XII team, and if aTm finishes fourth in the conference with an RPI around 50, they'll be it.

Bradley: Crushed Northern Iowa last night and now there are 6 MVC teams seriously in the mix. While I don' t think there's a chance the conference gets 6 in, I think it more likely that Bradley may take Southern Illinois' spot.

Down on the bubble? (teams that are no longer locks)

West Virginia: While they're kind of a sexy pick with great white hopes of Pittsnogle and Gansey (and his T-shirt) and last year's run, they've now lost three straight and have an RPI at 33. With L'ville, Pitt and Cincy to finish out the year, the Mountaneers may not want to get too comfortable.

Big XII Tourney Projections (updated 2/23)

2006-02-22T15:00:00.000-06:00

Here are the current standings as of Thursday Morning:

Kansas 11-2
Texas 11-2
Oklahoma 9-4
Colorado 7-6
aTm 7-6
Nebraska 7-6
Texas Tech 6-7
K-State 5-8
Iowa St. 5-8
Okie St. 4-9
Mizzou 4-9
Baylor 2-11

Here is how I project the season to end for each team

Texas (KU, @aTm, OU) 14-2
Kansas (@Tex, CU, @KSU) 13-3
Oklahoma (KSU, OSU, @Tex) 11-5
aTm (Neb, Tex, @TT) 9-7
Colorado (Mizzou, @KU, ISU) 9-7
Nebraska (@aTm, KSU, @Mizzou) 8-8
Texas Tech (@OSU @Bay, aTm) 7-9
ISU (@Bay, Mizzou, @CU) 7-9
OSU (TT, @OU, Bay) 6-10
Mizzou (@CU, @ISU, NU) 5-11
KSU (@OU, @NU, KU) 5-11
Baylor (ISU, TT, @OSU) 2-14

Then the Tourney would be:

#8 Iowa St. vs. #9 Oklahoma St., 11:30 a.m. (ESPN+)
winner vs. #1 Texas, 11:30 a.m. Friday (ESPN+)

#5 Colorado vs. #12 Baylor, 2:00 p.m. (ESPN+)
winner vs. #4 aTm, 2:00 Friday (ESPN+)

#7 Texas Tech vs. #10 Missouri, 6:00 p.m. (ESPN+)
winner vs. #2 Kansas, 6:00 p.m. Friday (ESPN+)

#6 Nebraska . vs. #11 Kansas St., 8:20 p.m. (ESPN2)
winner vs. #3 Oklahoma, 8:20 p.m. Friday (ESPN+)

I think the 6 seed would be nice, not only for the game time and national exposure, but of the top 4 seeds, I'd like another matchup with Oklahoma rather than Kansas or Texas.

Also, I'm beginning to think that the 5 seed would be better than the 4 seed for Nebraska, if we can get up there. Either way, it would likely result in a second round matchup with Colorado or Texas A & M, although if we're the 5 seed we get to rack up a likely win against Baylor first, which may hurt our RPI slightly, but make our record look even gaudier. In any case, its just another win to add to our NCAA resume may make it worthwhile.

The good news is it looks like we're staying out of that crappy 8/9 slot that not only gets to face the #1 seed, but also plays an 11:30 game on the first day. Ugh.

How Large is the Bubble?

2006-02-20T16:30:00.000-06:00

I'm a such a wannabe Joe Lunardi or Jerry Palm. I like to get going on my projections for the Tourney about every year at this time (I already put in for a day off on the Friday of the first round--also St. Patrick's Day).

This year I thought it was worth taking a look at how big the bubble really is. Since Nebraska was on it a few days ago, I was more interested at that time, but just in case we reel off four straight to win the season, its worth knowing whether to get excited, like when I got my first ever Powerball ticket last Saturday night, or not.

The first task is to determine how many slots are already filled. This can be done by first listing the Conferences that will likely not get any at-large bids, as they will probably get one and only one bid. So, I've done that below. The conferences have the team(s) listed next to them that is the favorite to win that conference's tournament.

1. MAAC (Iona/Manhattan)
2. Big Sky (Northern Arizona/Montana)
3. Ohio Valley (Murray St.)
4. Southlan (Northwestern St.)
5. Big South (Winthrop)
6. Southern (Georgia Southern)
7. Ivy (Penn)
8. Big West (Pacific)
9. Northeast (Fairliegh-Dickinson)
10. America East (Albany)
11. Mid-Continent (IUPUI)
12. Atlantic sun (Lipscomb/Belmont)
13. MEAC (Deleware St.)
14. SWAC (Southern)
15. Horizon (Wis-Mil)
16. MAC (Akron)
17. Sun Belt (Western Kentucky)
18. Patriot (Bucknell)

Then there are the teams that have already sewn up a bid, but are the only teams in their conferences that have done so. If these teams do not win their Conference Tournaments, they'll still be in, but there will be one less bubble spot available due to the automatic bid.

19. Gonzaga (West Coast)
20. George Mason (Colonial)
21. Memphis (C-USA)
22. George Washington (A-10)
23. Nevada (WAC)

Then, the teams from multi-bid conferences that have wrapped up their spot:

24. Illinois
25. Iowa
26. Wisconsin
27. Michigan St.
28. Ohio St.
29. Villanova
30. Pitt
31. UCONN
32. West Virginia
33. Georgetown
34. Marquette
35. Duke
36. Boston College
37. NC State
38. North Carolina
39. Florida
40. Tennessee
41. LSU
42. Texas
43. Oklahoma
44. Kansas
45. UNI
46. Wichita St.
47. UCLA
48. Arizona

And that leaves a grand total of 17 spots to be divided between the bubble teams. Remember for each team like Gonzaga and George Mason that is knocked out of their conference tourney early, there is one less spot on the bubble. That same phenomenon would happen if a team not listed above wins a major conference tournament (i.e. Colorado wins the Big XII, Washington wins the Pac-10), although there is then also usually one less bubble team vying for the remaining bubble spots.

So Who are those teams battling for those 17 spots? Right now, here's what I think:

Michigan
Cincy
Syracuse
Seton Hall
Maryland
Virginia
Florida St.
Kentucky
Alabama
Arkansas
Colorado
Southern Illinois
Missouri St.
Creighton
Bradley
Washington
Cal
Air Force
San Diego St.
BYU
Utah St.
UAB
Houston
Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Western Kentucky
Bucknell

That's 26 teams. A few of the bubble teams (like Bucknell and Western Kentucky) are also the favorites in their conference, so if they win their conference tourney, there will be fewer teams vying for the bubble spots.

I tried to make the list of teams that are in fairly stable so that no one is going to play themselves off that list in the next couple weeks, so that means that teams that are very likely to make it, like Creighton and Michigan, are not yet listed as "in". But the bubble list I've made is completely static. Any of those 26 teams could move off the bubble in either direction in the coming weeks, and other teams may move onto the bubble in that time as well.

Tom Osborne to Christina Aguilera in One Post

2006-02-16T11:39:00.000-06:00

I thought JL would like this because he probably owns the CD of the original artist. Well he might have a few MP3's. Little know fact about the band. A couple of the members used to live with their parents who bought Tom Osbornes old house near Taylor park in Lincoln.

Download MP3: Beautiful (Christina Aguilera Cover)- The Millions

Football Season: Right around the corner

2006-02-15T16:42:00.000-06:00

It's articles like this that addict me to Collegefootballnews.com. Nothing like starting to get into some in-depth analysis of the upcoming 2006 college football season.

Here's Pete Fiutak's Top 25 non-conference games, as listed in the article:

25. Oregon State at Boise State, Sept. 9
24. Oregon at Fresno State, Sept. 9
23. Minnesota at California, Sept. 9
22. Marshall at West Virginia, Sept. 2
21. Utah at UCLA, Sept. 2
20. Notre Dame at Georgia Tech, Sept. 2
19. Washington State at Auburn, Sept. 2
18. Maryland at West Virginia, Sept. 14
17. Louisville at Kansas State, Sept. 23
16. Iowa State at Iowa, Sept. 16
15. Georgia Tech at Georgia, Nov. 25
14. Arizona State at Colorado, Sept. 16
13. South Carolina at Clemson, Nov. 25
12. Colorado at Georgia, Sept. 23
11. California at Tennessee, Sept. 2
10. USC at Arkansas, Sept. 2
9. UCLA at Notre Dame, Oct. 21
8. Oklahoma at Oregon, Sept. 16
7. Miami at Louisville, Sept. 16
6. Michigan at Notre Dame, Sept. 16
5. Florida at Florida State, Nov. 25
4. Nebraska at USC, Sept. 16
3. Penn State at Notre Dame, Sept. 9
2. Notre Dame at USC, Nov. 25
1. Ohio State at Texas, Sept. 9

Wow, I miss college football season.

I can't wait.

The Beastles

2006-02-15T16:03:00.000-06:00

What so you get when you combine the Beatles and the Beastie Boys? The Beastles.

1. Ladies Do Love Me
2. Belly Movin
3. Buildin My Life
4. Electrified Kite
5. Let it Beast
6. Lovely NYC
7. Anna's MCs
8. Love You To Check It Out
9. Looking Down The Barrel of a Warm Gun
10. A Day in The Life of A Beastie Boy
Let It Beast printable CD sleeve

Not sure what I think of this yet. I like both the beatles and the beastie boys but not mashed. Kind of like eating pizza and burritos together.

The song titles are very creative.

BBS Roundup 2/14/06

2006-02-14T16:20:00.000-06:00

This may be a short-lived idea, but I thought it'd be a nice recurring blog feature to highlight some of the most interesting ongoing discussions on some of the bulletin boards most of us check regularly.

HI Main Board: Would Silas Fluellen be a Husker if Solich were still here?

HI Hoops Board: Could Mike Davis fit in at NU?

HHC: Go have a beer with Jose Ramos

HP Recruiting: OU vs. NU for a top quarterback from Texas in 2007?

BHF Baseball: Discussion of Texas baseball's 0-3 start and Jim Rose--simultaneously

Let me know if this is worthwhile or not. Probably not. I just felt bad because i hadn't posted anything for like three days and our hits went way down.

Big 10 Fans Say 'We Just Beat Up On Ourselves' for the Millionth Time

2006-02-14T12:59:00.000-06:00

Chicago, IL- While standing in line at the grocery store on Southport BLVD, 25-year-old, Jeffrey Smoker said for the one millionth time "The Big 10 conference is a good conference, we just always beat up on each other."

Two isles down Bret Basanez, a 24-year-old, had just said the exact same quote for the 999,999th time, missing the benchmark by one. Upon learning he had missed the 1 mil mark, Basanez had this to say "I didn't realize that I say it all of the time until now. I guess its better than saying we don't have a good team."

"At least we rank 8th in party schools" yelled 22-year-old Johnny Stocco, a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin. "Win or lose we still booze. And Ron Dane is the greatest running back of all time."

"The Big 10 conference is the best conference in the whole country" 23-year-old ,bag boy, Matthew Gutierrez sqeeked out. Guetierrez is from California and has no affiliation with any team in the Big 10 conference. He just lives in Chicago. "There is no other conference in the country that beats up on itself like the Big 10."

When asked what he's going to do now that he's hit the 1 millionth notch on the bed post, Smoker replied "Guess we'll just have to shoot for 2 million. This saying is becoming historic."

Please let this be real

2006-02-14T11:39:00.000-06:00

As I do every Tuesday over my lunch hour, I am checking out the new music available for the week on itunes. After sampling a little of Fiona Apple's angry new itunes originals collection and noting that Shawn Mullins, they guy who sang that Lullabye song that they played over and over again in the winter of 1999, apparently is still making music, I almost fell off my chair when I saw the new entry by Cowboy Troy, the cowboy rapper that has been tagging along with Big & Rich, the country group responsible for the "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" song which we all knew from the 2004 promos for the World Series of Poker.

Texas fans can't really think this is cool, can they? Austin is about as solid of a music city as there is on the map, which makes this even funnier. Obviously most teams have the radio-station created theme songs that get popular during a season or two (anyone remember the Hell-Raisin' Tour song they played on KFRX in 1987?), but getting the best country music rapper in the business to spearhead your team's anthem is taking things to another level.

I can already see myself sarcastically playing this gem during our tailgate when the Horns come to Lincoln next fall. And if I happen to catch a Texas fan after they get knocked out in the second round of the NCAA tournament this year or if their baseball team continues to be a huge failure, I'll be sure to comfort them by pointing out that they have one of the top rappers in the game on their side, and that things can't help but get better when Cowboy Troy is urging us all to "Hook Em!"

I did a little more research on this and I found this:

The originator of "Hick Hop" wrote the song with his friends and often times collaborators Big Kenny and John Rich of the Grammy nominated duo Big&Rich. "Hook ‘Em Horns" has the same energy as their other collaborations like the hit "I Play Chicken With The Train." "I hear that Coach Brown has heard the song and likes it," says Troy. "They tell me he’s been playing it for the team since we sent it to him and that’s really who we wrote the song for but hopefully other alums and fans of UT will want to crank it up for the Horns!"

A few lyrical highlights:

"Every down is like fourth and goal the other team is in the way and they're paying a toll"

"That ain't a lightning strike, that's a touchdown pass, and we're busting through the line of scrimmage like glass"

"Southern fried rage, comin' out the cage"

"Making other teams wonder, is it the Longhorns or is it thunder?"

"You can try to make a tackle or try to gain a yard, our offense and defense be hitting you hard"

I won't dillute the hilarity of this by attempting further comment. This day just got so much better.

You can get a complimentary WMA file here.

2 More Days

2006-02-14T08:04:00.000-06:00

I know my excitement that the Nebraska baseball team kicks off its season on Thursday against Charelston Southern probably seems a little overstated to most of you guys, but I don't care. The fact that the Huskers are on the diamond somewhere means that winter is, for all intents and purposes, over. The closer we are to winter being over, the closer I am to getting the grill going, to porch sitting, to being able to enjoy a cigar without my winter coat, to outdoor poker games and to an unreasonable belief that Reggie Sanders was the missing ingredient.

Sometimes I think I have that disorder where you get depressed during the winter every year. But even if I do, it makes the end of winter that much more sweet. Last night I realized while I was eating chicken enchiladas just before 6 at my kitchen table that it was the first time in several months that the sun was still out while I was eating dinner. I was more pumped than I should have been.

Also, there's just something calming about talking about, listening to and watching Nebraska baseball. Maybe its because my expectations aren't as high as they are for the basketball or football teams, or maybe its because they continually come through and win big games. I'm always pretty confident they'll win, and usually, they do. It's hard to get too negative.

Anyway, to try and manufacture some of the excitement I've got in you guys, here's some Husker Baseball stuff.

The Schedule (rumor is that radio broadcasts will start on Friday March 3 in the Minneapolis tournament and continue for the year. Sounds like it'll be Jim Rose and Randy Lee this year, which means that Lee should be fired sometime right before the conference tournament)

The Media Guide Roster

My Guess at the Starting Lineup for Thursday

1. Nick Jaros, CF (JC Transfer, stole 71 bases in two years at Maplewood CC)
2. Ryan Wehrle, SS (Mainly played 2B for us last year, should have a breakout season)
3. Andy Gerch, DH (Shoulder surgery may limit him early, but he'll be a fixture later)
4. Luke Gorsett, LF (Our new power guy, led country in JuCo homers last year)
5. Brandon Buckman, 1B (Hit .335 last year, but didn't have minimum at-bats to be ranked)
6. Jake Opitz, 3B (Only .256 last year, but split time with Wehrle)
7. Andrew Brown, RF (Another JC guy who will get time until Gerch is healthy)
8. Jeff Christy, C (His great defense makes up for subpar offensive numbers)
9. Steve Edlefson, 2b (A couple guys may get a shot here, this guy could be defensive playmaker)

Tony Watson will start the first game--here's a great piece on him by Mitch Sherman.

This Week's Polls:
Baseball America (Top 3: Clemson, Florida, Ga. Tech, Nebraska Unranked)
Collegiate Baseball (Top 3: Florida, Oregon St., Nebraska)
NCBWA (Top 3: Florida, Rice, Oregon St., Nebraska #5)
USA Today--as of Jan. 23 (Top 3: Texas, Florida, Clemson, Nebraska #10)

And since there is no local radio coverage, it looks like you'll be able to follow Thursday's game at 2:00 here: Charleston Southern

I'll look for audio links for the rest of the games this weekend in Charleston.

Monday's Music

2006-02-13T09:43:00.000-06:00

Banquet Remix- Apathy
Personal Jesus Remix- Apathy
Alphabet Aerobics- Blackalicious (Live On KEXP)
Stakes is High (Jay Dee remix)- De La Soul
Runnin' (Jay Dee remix)- Pharcyde
Y? (Be Like That) (Jay Dee remix)- Pharcyde
Rock Box- Run DMC
Sucker M.C.'s (Live)- Run DMC

Prince Wishes He Could Party Like Eustachy

2006-02-09T16:05:00.000-06:00

Manhattan, KS- Over a beer, last weekend, Ron Prince admitted to his neighbor, Robert Shills, that he wanted to be more like Larry Eustachy. "He just came over to our porch" Said Shills, "So I offered him a beer". Before his neighbor knew it, he was spouting off "If I could just have one night of an apartment party with 20 year old women". Shills explained. "Eustachy looked so cool on ESPN's Page 2, I would kill for that kind of pub". Shills explained that he wouldn't shut up about these stupid Kansas State web sites. He mumbled "They make me look fat.

He kept on saying things like "Everytime I go to a party people ask me to do the Carlton dance." "I don't get it, my last name is Prince, maybe I should turn my jacket inside out? Why am I such a dork? Is it my hair?"

Shills said "Prince cleaned me out of all of the beer in my garage refridgerator" "I would have thought he was Larry Eustachy himself, except he didn't have hair". Shills was in good spirits explaining that he had "a 'whole nother beer fridge in my basement". Shills then smiled and said "I hope he never finds out my two daughters attend Kansas State."

Husband Store

2006-02-09T15:15:00.000-06:00

A store that sells new husbands has just opened in New York City, where a woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates: You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the value of the products increase as the shopper ascends the flights.The shopper may choose any item from a particular floor, or may choose to go up to the next floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building! So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband.

On the first floor the sign on the door reads: Floor 1 - These men Have Jobs.

The second floor sign reads: Floor 2 - These men Have Jobs and Love Kids.

The third floor sign reads: Floor 3 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, and are Extremely Good Looking. "Wow," she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.

She goes to the fourth floor and the sign reads: Floor 4 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Good Looking and Help With Housework. "Oh, mercy me!" she exclaims, "I can hardly stand it!"

Still, she goes to the fifth floor and sign reads: Floor 5 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Gorgeous, Help with Housework, and Have a Strong Romantic Streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor and the Sign reads:Floor 6 - You are visitor 31,456,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please.Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store.

To avoid gender bias charges, the store's owner opens a New Wives store just across the street.

Floor 1: The first floor has wives that love sex.

Floor 2: The second floor has wives that love sex and football and have money.

Floor 3:The third through sixth floors have never been visited.Men apparently are easy to please.

Ben Folds--YES!

2006-02-08T16:55:00.000-06:00

He's coming here. And by here, I mean Omaha, which is fantastic given that this tour is only 8 dates long.

Just announced US Tour:

03/04/06 Seattle, WA Paramount Theatre (pre-sale going on now)
03/07/06 Omaha, NE Sokol Auditorium (pre-sale begins 2/9 at 1pm EST)
03/09/06 West Des Moines, IA Val Air Ballroom (pre-sale going on now)
03/11/06 Madison, WI Orpheum Theatre (pre-sale begins 2/9 at 1pm EST)
03/12/06 Milwaukee, WI Eagles Club/The Rave/Eagles Ballroom
(pre-sale begins 2/9 at 1pm EST)
03/15/06 Columbus, OH Lifestyle Communities Pavilion (pre-sale begins 2/9 at 1pm EST) 03/17/06 Indianapolis, IN Murat Egyptian Room (pre-sale begins 2/9 at 1pm EST)
03/18/06 Ann Arbor, MI Michigan Theater (pre-sale begins 2/9 at 1pm EST)

He really gives Nebraska and Iowa a lot of love via his tour schedules. I have no idea why, but I'm not complaining. Who's coming with me?

Freeman: Out of the Closet

2006-02-08T15:36:00.000-06:00

Manhattan, KS- Kansas State recruit Joshua Freeman was "so clearly, obviously" gay in retrospect, fellow student Bernard Sitzman, 18, realized Monday.

"Me and a bunch of people in class were thinking about how he acts in class" Sitzman said. " I was just about to say something about Freeman always wearing purple when it hit me. How in the world could I not seen that he was gay?"

Freeman has been without a girlfriend for 4 years and frequently hangs out with his mother. "Freeman never talks about girls." Said Sitzman, a friend since the 6th grade. Sitzman is "99.9% sure", he is a homosexual.

"I thought he acted flamboyant because he was an arrogant jock," said Sitzman. "Josh played with Barbies and also had a toy poodle named Sasha he'd occasionally bring to football practice. He also enjoyed traveling to New York to see the newest musicals".

Added Sitzman "I knew he was different, but as a 12 year old, my understanding of gay culture was limited to David Hasslehoff".

Ever since coming to the realization, Sitzman has remembered more details about Freeman that seem to affirm his gayness. Among them are sack lunches of yogurt and carrots he ate on field trips, his excessive attention to detail when dressing and his elaborately decorated locker."

A good Wednesday Laugh

2006-02-08T11:08:00.000-06:00

A little down today? I've got the cure to whatever ails you.

A good laugh.

Particularly "The Dawn of a New Era".

In other news, Ron Prince isn't the only new hire in Manhattan, as they also have a new PR guy.

Cover Train

2006-02-08T10:38:00.000-06:00

Buddy Holly- Everyday
The Beatles - That'll Be The Day (Buddy Holly Cover)
Martha And The Vendellas- Something (Beatles Cover)
The Kinks- Dancing In The Street (Martha And The Vendellas Cover)
Hermans Hermits- Dandy (Kinks Cover)
Morrissey - East West (Herman's Hermits Cover)
David Bowie - I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday (Morrissey Cover)
Flaming Lips- Life On Mars (David Bowie Cover)
Beck- Do You Realize (Flaming Lips Cover)
Johnny Cash- Rowboat (Beck Cover)
Bob Dylan- Ring Of Fire (Johnny Cash Cover)
Rolling Stones- Like A Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan Cover)
The Who- Under My Thumb (Rolling Stones Cover)
The Ramones- Substitute (The Who Cover)
U2- Beat On The Brat (Ramones Cover)
R.E.M.- One (U2 Cover)
Sufjan Stevens- The One I Love (R.E.M. Cover)

Tobacco Tonight

2006-02-07T15:55:00.000-06:00

I just had kind of mini-epiphany that made me happy. I pulled up ESPN.com's college basketball page to see if Joe Lunardi had put any more than 3 Big XII teams in the dance this week (actually, he had 5, giving ISU the final nod), when I realized I had been completely oblivious to the fact that Duke/UNC is on tonight (8 p.m. CST, ESPN).

One of my favorite small pleasures in life is realizing during the late afternoon that there's a more-than-watchable sporting event on TV that night. Occasionally it'll be a Thursday night college football game, maybe a Nebraska baseball game on TV, Monday Night Football, whatever. While I'm not a person you really have to sell on watching regular season college hoops (I did watch the entire Xavier/GW game last weekend), especially after the football season is over, this is a regular season matchup I have absolutely no problem watching from beginning to end twice a year. It's appointment television.

Things to watch for tonight:

-Apparently if you become an internet hero for unknowingly being duped by a stoner from Maryland while supporting J.J. Redick, he'll drink with you.

-I'm not as much of a J.J. hater as many non-Duke fans are, but I'm a little sick of the Redick/Adam Morrison debates. Shelden Williams will be the most dominant player on the floor tonight. A couple weeks ago he made Craig Smith look like a little girl by swatting everything that left Smith's hands, including passes to the officials right after timeouts. If you count defense, which the game of basketball does, you've got to give Williams more love than he's receiving.

-Will Tyler Hansbrough step up the intensity in his first exposure to this game, or will he stick with the "I don't hate Duke, but when I play them, I won't be nice"?

-Will the ACC refs call a solid game but be less trigger-happy with the Ts now that the ACC has established that referee suspensions are now fair game? (By the way, bravo, ACC)

Second coming of Rod Stewart

2006-02-07T12:25:00.000-06:00

The latest video for the band Train, "Cab," was playing on VH1 this morning when I turned on the tube. Is it just me or does the lead singer for Pat Monahan, Train's lead singer, sound like the second coming of Rod Stewart?

Here's a sample of Cab, now compare that to Stewart's Maggie May or Forever Young. The clips are courtesy of Amazon.com.

The good news for Monahan is Stewart landed a hot woman with that voice. The bad news is she left him, and now he just a washed up d-bag.

And so concludes this random thought.

11 Years Ago This Week

2006-02-07T12:02:00.000-06:00

-Future service academy head coach Bobby Ross thought better of blaming San Diego's 49-26 drubbing by the 49ers Super Bowl XXIX on the officials.

-Ben Roethisberger's future groomer gives us the the Top Ten things Dan Rather would never say on the CBS Evening News.

-Denver International Airport makes final preparations for its grand opening.

-Speculation as to whether "Forrest Gump" can challenge TNT-staple "The Shawshank Redemption", "Pulp Fiction" or "Quiz Show", which no one ever saw, for Oscar supremacy.

-On your Ipod (I mean tape deck):
Hootie & the Blowfish: Hold My Hand
4 p.m.: Sukiyaki
Tom Petty: You Don't Know How it Feels
Greenday: When I Come Around
Weezer: Buddy Holly

Team above Southeast

2006-02-07T09:35:00.000-06:00

For those of us non-Knight Lincolnites who had the city sports dominance of Lincoln Southeast pounded into us during the 90's, there has been some respite since the entrance of Lincoln Southwest and Lincoln North Star to the fray, which has dilluted the Knights' dominance, especially on the football field.

However, just as the rest of the city gets comfortable, here they come again, now claiming the #1 spot in Class A Hoops from both the LJS and OWH. And if it wasn't hard enough to take, the more coverage the Knights get, the more we get to hear more about the Lincoln native who inexplicbly chose to voluntarily become a Longhorn. At least he could have made it easier on us Lincolnites by choosing someplace like Pacific, Marquette or Arizona St. like all the other Lincoln guys do.

The combination is enough for me to throw up a little in my mouth.

Paul McCartney @ The Qwest Center 10-30-05 Omaha, NE

2006-02-06T23:34:00.000-06:00

The beginning doesn't sound very good because the sound was bad at the show. The rest is pretty decent.

CD 1
CD 2
Cover
Back

Download: disc one
1. Magical Mystery Tour
2. Flaming Pie
3. Jet
4. I'll Get You
5. Drive My Car
6. Till There Was You
7. Let Me Roll It
8. Go To Get You Into My Life
9. Fine Line
10. Maybe I'm Amazed
11. The Long And Winding Road
12. In Spite Of All The Danger
13. I Will
14. Jenny Wren
15. For No One
16. Fixing A Hole
17. English Tea
18. I'll Follow The Sun
19. Follow Me

Download: disc two
1. Blackbird
2. Eleanor Rigby
3. Too Many People
4. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
5. Good Day Sunshine
6. Band On The Run
7. Penny Lane
8. I've Got A Feeling
9. Back In The USSR
10. Hey Jude
11. Live And Let Die (missing beginning of song)
12. Yesterday
13. Get Back
14. Helter Skelter
15. Please Please Me
16. Let It Be
17. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band / The End

Daily Nebraskan Quotes- Circa 1999

2006-02-06T16:12:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite things to read in the Daily Nebraskan was the basketball quotes during the Nee days. Pure comedy.

VS. KU- March 8, 1999 KU77 NU53.

Danny Nee
"They kicked our ass"

"Every time you miss a free throw, it's like a coffin - you can feel that dirt coming down on you."

Venson Hamilton
"Once I missed my first one, I tried to steer everything,"

"They shot that first 3-pointer, and that sent us a message that they were ready to play," Hamilton said. "Their intensity was high; we didn't match it."

Andy Markowski
Vs. KU (March 08, 1999)
"They shot the ball well; we didn't shoot the ball well."

VS OU February 18, 1999 OSU 60 NU 48

Venson Hamilton
"After that went in, I just looked at Larry (Florence) and told him right there, 'It just wasn't meant for us to win,'" Hamilton said.

"We had an off night tonight," Hamilton said. "We played miserable."

"This is going to hurt our chances bad," Hamilton said. "Everybody's mad. Everybody knows they could have played better ... much better."

Danny Nee
"We're still in a good position to control our own destiny," Nee said. "We just talk about winning the next game."

Upcoming Shows In Our Area

2006-02-06T15:35:00.000-06:00

Sokol Hall

Monday, March 13, 2006 9 pm Ghostface / M-1 of Dead Prez $20
Tickets
Ghostface- Charlie Brown (clip)

Friday, March 31, 2006 9pm Clap Your Hands Say Yeah / The Brunettes $10
Tickets
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah- Upon This Tidal Wave Of Young Blood

Monday April 3, 2006 9pm Death Cab For Cutie
Tickets $25 in advance, $27 day of show
Death Cab For Cutie- Title and Registration

Uptown- KC, Missouri

Tuesday March 21, 2006 Wilco Tickets $27
Wilco-The Late Greats (Live)

Your #1 Texas Longhorns...Still looking for a Win

2006-02-06T11:15:00.000-06:00

Since I started following College Baseball right about when Nebraska started consistently winning (I admit it, I wasn't on the bandwagon pre-2000), I've always tried to be aware of when the season starts, not just for Nebraska, but for all of the NCAA teams. Every freaking year, I'm thinking that there haven't been any games played, and I see a headline like "Jayhawks at 11-1 after series with Hawaii-Hilo".

Once again, the season apparently started and no one told me, but my frustration about the stealthiness of the sport quickly diminished after seeing that our friends from Austin, who also are consensus #1s, started the 2006 campaign 0-3.

I don't know what it is but cheering for Texas' baseball demise, however minimal it is, is akin to the joy that fills my heart while watching the downfall of the Colorado football program.

Mikki Moore- Penthouse suite, 10th floor Schramm

2006-02-06T09:06:00.000-06:00

I began going to the University in the fall of 1996. I lived in the Harper/Schramm/Smith dormitories my freshman year. Specifically on the 5th floor of Harper with half of the men's basketball team. If I can remember right, Cookie Belcher, Tyron Lue and Larry Florence all lived on my floor. I think Troy Piakowski and some others were thrown in there too. Troy used to somehow buy us beer. A majority of the athletes on campus lived in these dorms for some reason. Those are all different stories.
I had a friend from high school, John, that lived on the 10th floor of Schramm. On the first day of college he went to take a shower on his floor. It was super awkward to be showering in a new place. Especially because there was a small curtain covering the shower. A little different from home. I remember in my dorm, wanting to shower as fast as I could. John is half way done with his shower when he could tell someone was in the shower beside him. Then he noticed something moving out of the corner of his eye. It was Mikki Moore's head peaking above the shower divider. John looked at him. Mikki Moore said "How's it going" with a smile similar to Chris Rock's. In fact, I later found out that Mikki was just really excited for the first day of school. My friend John, with shampoo in his hair, immediately turned off the shower and returned to his room.

RPI Update

2006-02-06T08:50:00.000-06:00

Despite knocking out hot-shooting Baylor on Saturday, this wasn't a good week for the Huskers RPI-wise, as they dropped from #81 to #94.

Why the drop? Even though it was a win, Baylor's RPI is at #156, and to keep the pace in the RPI top 100, the wins have to be against teams in the top 100. Wins against 150+ ranked RPI teams won't move you up, in fact, those wins get you pushed back by the current of "RPI peer teams" who are getting quality wins in conference play. Fortunately, there is no one else we'll face all year that has an RPI below 150 unless Texas Tech really falls apart.

The other thing working against Nebraska's RPI this weekend was the performance of teams that Nebraska has beaten this year. Of the 15 teams that Nebraska has defeated, only one of those teams had a win this weekend against a D-1A opponent. That was Oklahoma St. who somehow pulled out a game they shouldn't have won against Kansas St., another Nebraska defeatee.

On a partially-related sidenote, I watched that KSU/OSU game, and I now have to ask this out loud: What is the freaking deal with Eddie Sutton's lip this year? Have I just never noticed this before? The guy is melting down on the sidelines every game and during each rant, as it builds to a crescendo that one would expect to include a beautifully woven tapestry of profanity, removal of the jacket, chair-throwing, and perhaps even an "I've had it up to here" gesture, it climaxes in this 7-year old girl pouty lip thing. It's a little puzzling.

Bittersweet Symphony

2006-02-03T23:37:00.000-06:00

Thanks to several successful bids at cigarbid.com, I've added a couple of new cigars to my humidor. I recently smoked a K.Hansotia Symphony Robusto. K.Hansotia is the maker of the Gurkha Class Regent line JMitch was raving about. So I was excited to try out his signature named line. I was not disappointed.

I pulled the K.H. out of the humi and was concerned that the cigar seemed a little smushy to the touch, especially at the head of the cigar. But, my hygrometer read a solid 68%, so I was hoping that it would burn ok. In fact, it lit and burned perfectly, probably the best burn I've every had for a cigar, no need to correct the burn the entire time I smoked. The ash was a medium gray and the draw was perfect, making this the "easiest" smoke I've ever had.

The Symphony has a Connecticut wrapper, Dominican binder, and Nicaraguan filler. The wrapper had a mild flavor, but, unlike the Fonseca I smoked recently, upon lighting the flavor was smooth, solid, and slightly spicy throughout. The Symphony produced volumous smoke and packed a little punch, so I would categorize it as mild/medium. The cigar's label is silver and black, with K.Hansotia's signature in script, with the words "A Century of Tradition, Silver Edition" below his name. This robusto measures 6" in length and has a 50 ring gauge.

I married my cigar with Boulder Beer Company's Mojo India Pale Ale, an enjoyable IPA that provided a nice bitter complement to this smooth, enjoyable smoke.

I imagine Tom Hagan would have a couple of these sticks in his humi to enjoy. I look forward to enjoying the other four in my humi, but won't hesitate to pass one to a good friend, especially if they enjoy milder smokes or don't have much cigar experience. Plus, at less than $2.50 a stick via auction, adding some more down the line is likely option.

On my scale, the K.Hansotia Symphony Robusto receives a 4 out of 5.

Here's how fellow smokers rated the Symphony Robusto at top25cigar.com.

#49

2006-02-03T16:28:00.000-06:00

Apparently Friday afternoons CAN be very productive, despite what Ted Ferguson says. I just found out that I'm the #49 most frequent poster of all time on the BHF messageboard. I don't believe I've posted anything there for about 2 years. To quote Paul Barish as he responded to Tommy Callahan after being informed that his mother was named "Boner of the Month"...I'm honored.

Suck It Creighton.

2006-02-03T11:19:00.000-06:00

I don't know him, but GA Hill at Heavy Soul just became my new best friend.

No, I'm not obsessed with the RPI, but...

2006-02-02T16:10:00.000-06:00

I can't help but continue to think that Nebraska may have a decent resume to make the NCAA tournament if they finish the season with 6 wins in their last 10-11 games (9 in the reg season remain, 1-2 in the Big XII tournament, I assume). That would put them at either 9-7 or 10-6 in conference and 20-10 or 20-11 overall (more on the chances if that happens here).

While they've now jumped into the #82 spot in the RPI (prior to Thursday night's games), they still have a distinguishing amount of games and success against RPI top 100 teams when compared with their RPI peers.

One side note, yesterday was something of an historic day as the NCAA for the first time ever made their RPI calculations public. This used to be only available to the folks on the selection committee, which made people like Jerry Palm money. Palm will still probably be OK though, as the NCAA is only releasing this weekly, while sites like his and several others still update daily.

Back to the Huskers, though. Nebraska is currently 2-3 vs. teams in today's RPI top 50 and 4-3 vs. teams with an RPI from 51-100.

I know I've harped on this not long ago, and maybe I'm just grasping at straws, but this compares favorably to teams that Nebraska might have to battle on the bubble if they finish 9-7 or 10-6 in conference.

Teams with 10+ RPI games against top 100 RPI teams and a .500 or better record in those games:

Team Record (RPI)
Duke 11-1 (1)
Memhis 10-2 (2)
Villanova 9-2 (3)
Tennessee 7-3 (4)
UCONN 10-1 (5)
Illinois 11-2 (6)
Michigan St. 6-5 (7)
Pitt 9-1 (8)
Texas 9-3 (9)
Iowa 7-5 (10)
UCLA 6-4 (11)
Wisconsin 9-4 (13)
Ohio St. 7-5 (15)
Arizona 7-5 (16)
Michigan 7-3 (17)
Creighton 8-3 (18)
Indiana 6-4 (21)
LSU 6-5 (23)
NCSU 7-4 (26)
Wich. St. 6-5 (28)
Marquette 6-6 (29)
West Va. 7-3 (31)
Seton Hall 6-5 (33)
Kentucky 7-6 (34)
North Carolina 6-5 (36)
Bradley 5-5 (54)
Iowa St. 6-5 (58)
Kansas 6-6 (64)
Arkansas 5-5 (65)
Hawaii 6-5 (79)
BYU 8-4 (80)
Nebraska 6-6 (81)

That's the end of the list. Notice that of the 50 teams between 40 and 90, only 7 of them are in this group. Thus, Nebraska is going to have a leg up on any other teams that make a similar charge onto the bubble.

The reason Nebraska's RPI is so low is because they have only played 6 road/neutral games and only won 2 of them and, to a lesser degree because they played 7 games against teams with an RPI higher than 201.

On a related note, while looking at the records against RPI top 100s, it may be a good time to start pre-picking NCAA First Round upsets victims--its never too early to thinking about the bracket strategy. Here are some teams that may be a little overrated coming down the stretch:

Team: Record (Conference Record), RPI

Oklahoma: 14-4 (5-2), 19.

Only one team in the RPI top 40 has fewer games against RPI top 50 teams than Oklahoma (the Sooners had 3, Wisconsin-Milwaukee has had 2). In the RPI Top 40, only 8 teams have one or fewer victories over RPI Top 50 teams than Oklahoma, and OU is the higest ranked of that group of 8. Imagine what that would look like if they hadn't beat Texas.

Wisconsin-Milwaukee: 15-4 (9-1), 22.

Now these guys will probably be a facing a higher-seeded team in the first round, but will also be everyone's upset special. Don't buy it. Not only did they already use up all of their luck last year, which will probably jack up their seeding, but they also have 0 wins against RPI top 50 teams in two attempts and have losses to two 100+ RPI-rated teams (Wisconsin Green Bay and Tennessee Tech)

Maryland: 13-5 (4-2), 25.

Only win in 5 attempts against RPI Top 50 teams was a 2-point nail-biter at home against shaky Boston College in early December. Only one legit away game victory this year, which was against the ACC's worst team, Georgia Tech.

George Washington: 16-1 (6-0), 45.

Everyone likes to get on GW's bandwagon because they've got a guy with a really cool name, not to mention only one loss, and I can see that happening even more in March. But GW has gotten fat on a whopping 10 games against teams with RPIs of 201+. That makes Barry Collier's schedule look the NBA playoffs. OK, that's going a little far, as Longwood may not be able to compete in the Atlantic Division, but this is the worst schedule of any NCAA at-large contending team in the nation.

Here's me going out on a limb: If I were a betting man, I'd be all of Xavier -3 against these guys tonight. I'll make it my lock of the season.

Another Unremarkable Signing Day

2006-02-02T08:02:00.000-06:00

I've never been incredibly gung-ho about signing day like some people are, and yesterday was no exception, as I didn't realize it was that day until halfway through the morning. I've never understood the excitement for signing day press conferences and TV specials to rehash recruits that most of us die-hards have known everything we care to know about those guys for months.

The small exception to the snoozefest is when there's unexpected good or bad news (as a Husker fan, I can't remember too many good signing day surprises, but I do remember Stanley Daniels, Ronald McClendon, etc.). Other than that, the predictibilty and rehashing of information that has been discussed for months is a little boring.

That said, it looks like the Huskers didn't have quite the unbridled success that they did last year as Scout.com currently ranks them at #29, CFN at #23 and Rivals at #20. Apparently ESPN now uses Scouts, Inc. to provide their exclusive recruiting rankings as they were on the crawler non-stop last night during Duke's fast-break fest against BC, but you've got to be an insider to see them.

On a side note, either Scout.com or Scouts Inc. needs an attorney to get crackin' on a cease and desist letter. Last night, I was confused for most of the night as it appeared that ESPN was promoting Scout.com on Sportscenter, when in actuality it was Scouts Inc.

Pope will be proud...

2006-02-01T22:58:00.000-06:00

In addition to having what is easily the coolest website I've seen in a long time, I like what I've heard so far from the Raconteurs, which is a side project of Jack White along with Brendon Benson (of Pope's best of 2005 fame), Patrick Keeler of the Greenhornes and another guy named Jack Lawrence, who I admittedly know nothing about. I was all over Jack White last year as I think "Get Behind me Satan" was the best album released in 2005, so I was excited to hear this. You can check out MP3s here. But more than anything, cool website.

Another Article Worth Skipping

2006-01-31T15:42:00.000-06:00

I've never liked Skip Bayless. I think it started when he was substituting for Jim Rome's radio show in September 2003 and cliaming that the Kansas City Chiefs had no chance of making the playoffs that year.

Things escalated for me when he penned this gem prior to the Rose Bowl. I've already went on a diatribe about that one (scroll down to see it) so I won't bring up the fact that he actually expressed frustration that ESPN was overhyping Texas before the Rose Bowl.

Well Skip's got another beauty of an article today, and this time, the line to whack Skip is getting longer and longer and longer and longer.

Here's some of my favorite piles of crap from Bayless:

1/31/05: "The problem here is that, for the first time, the Super Bowl features two underdogs, two Cinderellas, two teams that came from nowhere on destiny-kissed rolls."

The Seahawks were the #1 seed in the NFC, were favored in every one of their playoff games, and played each of those games in front of what you describe as the largest homefield advantage in the NFL. Wow, if the Panthers or Skins had made it through, we might be in Hoosiers territory.

This is a game without an established superstar -- unless you count Seattle left tackle Walter Jones, the lone cinch Hall of Famer. Pittsburgh's Jerome Bettis is not -- not after never leading his league in rushing and never having transcendent postseason impact. Bettis, a six-time Pro Bowl player, has been very good. Not great.

Skip counts Walter Jones as an established superstar to make a point and fails to mention that the NFL's MVP happens to be suiting up for one team, while last year's rookie of the year is the leader of the other team's offense. Never mind that Seahawks are littered all over the 2006 Pro Bowl NFC Offense.

Skip on Ron Artest: First, NBA commissioner David Stern got away with suspending him for 73 games -- the rest of the season! -- after Artest didn't land a single punch in the stands at Detroit last year and threw only a couple over his shoulder in self-defense. Now, Larry Bird has managed to turn poor Artest into the bad guy when the real bad guy all along was Bird.

Let me get this straight--Artest gets hit with a beverage, charges in the stands and tries to beat the hell out of a dude who was uninvolved and looked like he was going to crap himself, and Skippy is claiming that his actions were mitigated because he didn't land a punch and because, and I can't even type this with a straight face, there was self-defense involved?

Skip on Bob Stoops suspending Adrian Peterson against UCLA: No, I readily accept that many football players consider OU mostly a proving ground for the NFL. If they want to attend classes -- and want to excel academically -- that's great …

… as long as they excel on the field.

To me, they're little more than unpaid pro football players, and it's absurdly unrealistic to expect they can put in the necessary hours on the practice field and in the weight and treatment rooms and still attend every class.

Its getting more and more clear that Skippy likes to take positions that are simply going to get him reactions like I'm providing right now. His coninued mastery of this worthless incindiary journalism, whether its on ESPN.com or when he's annoyingly bantering with Woody Paige (I never thought Paige would be my favorite person in a room), is starting to get noticed. Honestly, no one likes this guy. Its starting to seem like ESPN is just using him as a villain like they did with Trev Alberts.

Shiver Me Timbers, MPAA Accused of Piracy

2006-01-26T21:22:00.000-06:00

Aye, in a merry yarn if Me e'er heard one, the Motion Picture Association o' America has been accused o' movie piracy. Blow me down!

Arrr, the accuser is film director Kirby Dick who sent a copy o' his documentary "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" t' the Mpaa back in No'ember.

The film puts the work o' the MPAA in the spotlight, accusin' it o' bein' too hard on sex, too soft on 'iolence and publicly unaccountable. For its part, the MPAA reckons the film-maker’s methods, allegedly in'ol'in' rootin' through MPAA’s members dustbins and generally followin' them about, war a bit underhand.

Aye, mr Dick says he emailed the MPAA seekin' assurances that it would not make copies o' the film. He now wants t' know why it did so and has asked for all copies t' be returned t' him. Aye, me parrot concurs.

Arrr, accordin' t' the MPAA's own website, "Manufacturin', sellin', distributin' or makin' copies o' motion pictures without the consent o' the copyright owner is illegal.

Does piracy sound fun to ye scalawag? A couple o' options be a'ailable, check the worlds greatest torrent site, thepiratebay.org r just learn t' talk like a pirate, ye Son of a Biscuit Eater.

Gar, Where can I find a bottle o'rum?

Radiohead Covers

2006-01-26T18:08:00.000-06:00

For your Friday. Enjoy.

Download MP3: Mark Ronson feat Alex Green- Just
Download MP3: The Flaming Lips- Knives Out
Download MP3: Tori Amos- Karma Police
Download MP3: Gillian Welch- Blackstar
Download MP3: Damian Rice- Creep
Download MP3: A Clearing- Gagging Order
Download MP3: Pedro the Lion- Letdown
Download MP3: Anthrax- The Bends
Download MP3: The Pretenders- Creep

There's a Hole in My Heart that Can't be Filled by Nebrasketball

2006-01-26T10:01:00.000-06:00

Rivers flow into the sea
Yet even the sea is not so full of me
If I'm not blind why can't I see
That a circle can't fit
Where a square should be

Not that any of us have staked our emotional well-being on the success of the Nebraska basketball team, but after last night's crapfest completing a trifecta of miserable perofmances, it's safe to say that I can back down any optimism I ever had about the team's postseason chances and move on to the other things in life. And although that flimsy optimism was a inadequate fill-in for the void left by the conclusion of the college football season, we've still got 7 months until Louisiana Tech rolls into town.

Don't despiar, though. There's plenty to look forward to until September 2nd. So, without further delay, here is the calender of items to fill the massive hole that was created by this month's annual exit of the greatest sport in the world.

February 1: College football signing day
February 5: The Super Bowl
February 10: My cousin's band Oranjesta, is having a CD release party at Knickerbockers.
February 10-February 26: Winter Olympics
February 15: Sunset in Lincoln, NE moves past 6:00 p.m.
February 16: Pitchers & Catchers report to MLB Training Camps
February 16: First Nebraska baseball game (@ Charleston Southern)
February 17: Raymond Central faces Class C-1 #1 Wahoo Bishop Neumann in Raymond
February 17-19: NBA All-Star weekend
February 28: Fat Tuesday

March 1: First Spring Training Game
March 3-20: World Baseball Classic
March 6-12: Championship Week
March 9-11: Nebraska Boys' State Basketball Tournament
March 10: First Nebraska Home Basetball Game (vs. Alabama)
March 12: NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday
March 16-19: NCAA First and Second Round Games
March 23-26: NCAA Third and Fourth Round Games

April 1: Final Four Games
April 2: First Regular Season Baseball Game (White Sox/Indians)
April 2: Daylight Savings Begins
April 3: Official MLB opening Day
April 3: NCAA Basketball Championship
April 4: NU/Creighton Baseball @ Rosenblatt
April 6-9: The Masters
April 14-16: Nebraska/aTm baseball series @ Haymarket (return of Rob Childress)
April 15: Red-White Game
April 16: Easter
April 18: NU/Creighton Baseball @ Haymarket
April 21-23: NU Baseball series @ preseason #1 Texas
April 22: NBA Playoffs begin
April 29-30: NFL Draft

May 4: Cedars Charity Golf tournament @Woodland Hills (ask me if you want in)
May 16: NU/Creighton Basetball @ Rosenblatt
May 24-28: Big XII Baseball Tournament (with new format)

June 2-5: NCAA Baseball Regionals
June 8: NBA Finals Begin (possibly June 6)
June 9-12: NCAA Baseball Super-Regionals
June 15-18: U.S. Open
June 16-25: College World Series
June 28: NBA Draft

July 10-11: MLB All Star Festivities
July 20-23: British Open
End of July: NFL Training camps open

First Week of August: NFL Preseason games begin
August 31: First Thursday Night of College Football (Northern Arizona/Arizona St., Northwestern/Miami (OH), Syracuse/Wake Forest, BC/Ohio)

And before you know it, September 2 will be here.

File Sharing

2006-01-25T09:05:00.000-06:00

The topical escalation of media coverage besieging the demise of Napster has instigated widespread debate over the implications file sharing and the Internet will have for the record industry. Napster software allowed millions of users to share and download music mp3 files, which are of near CD quality, from each other's hard drives. This infringed copyright laws and provided a very real threat to both musicians and record companies alike. In response Napster was sued by the American heavy metal band Metallica, and then taken to court by The Recording Industry Association of America; where they were subsequently ordered to cease operating. Despite this verdict, many similar companies such as Grokster and Kazaa continue to offer file-sharing facilities and provide free access to copyrighted music.

"I did not - was not asked if I wanted to be part of Napster. I was not asked if Napster could throw our music into their system. That choice was taken away from me." Metallica's Lars Ulrich (Oct 10, 2000) CBS News

"This is not about now. No. This is about five years from now. This is about 10 years from now," he says. "So, if we are going to sell our music on the Internet, in whatever way we so choose, we cannot do that if the guy next door is giving it away for free." Metallica's Lars Ulrich (Oct 10, 2000) CBS News

In honor of Lars...

Metallica – Nothing else matters

Lucie Silvas - Nothing else matters

Oh yeah, I blatantly copied the first paragraph from the internet.

Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) on File sharing

AP: You've said that you don't see music file sharing as a threat, mainly because of quality issues?

Tweedy: That's just part of it. I don't think that the quality is the same. But I don't see it as a threat because I don't feel that it's a threat to have people more interested in music. I think what's happening with file sharing is that you have a lot more people hearing a lot more music, and I think more than anything else it has engendered an enthusiasm for music. It's a no-brainer that it should be embraced, that's kind the whole point of making music, to be heard. The only thing that stands in the way of making sense to most people is greed. ... File sharing sites don't just have new material, they have archival material, they have spoken word, they tons of material that I never had access to growing up. At their fingertips, people have all this amazing stuff, and I'd like to see what's going to come out of that in the future. If you shut that down, it's like closing a library.

Jeff Tweedy: pecan pie[mp3]
Jeff Tweedy: I can't keep from talking[mp3]
Jeff Tweedy: please tell my brother[mp3]

When is a Prayer Not a Prayer?

2006-01-25T08:27:00.000-06:00

There were big happenings in the Unicam yesterday morning. Much to Ernie Chambers' chagrin, prayers are often offered on the Legislature floor prior to the commencing the daily session. While that alone is an issue worth discussing, the issue took an entirely intriguing turn when Yesterday's guest "pray-er" was Pastor Tom Swartley from Elm Creek. Rev. Swartley opened up fairly innocuously, but after a few setnences, it was clear that the prayer was intended to be more horizontal than vertical:

The prayer offered by guest Pastor Tom Swartley of Elm Creek had a routine beginning. “Almighty God, we come humbly into your presence this morning seeking your favor.”
Six sentences in, Swartley was asking for forgiveness for “a people who have killed 47 million of my fellow Americans since the day I was born,” in reference to abortion. He prayed that legislators have a renewed sense of conscience and courage “to do what is right.”“Open our eyes to the other aspects of this 33-year-long bloody nightmare,” Swartley said later. “Open our eyes to see that we’ve killed 47 million young American taxpayers, and indeed Social Security is in crisis. Open our eyes to see that 47 million of our countrymen and women are gone — doctors, lawyers, inventors, authors, musicians and artists.”

Swartley later asked God to forgive people in the state for teaching evolution, which he described as a “religion that tells us that we are only here by chance; that we are here for no reason and human life means nothing more than any other life…”“We’ve put our children into the same category as other mammals, and we wonder why sometimes they act like animals,” he added later.

After the prayer, Rev. Swartley said "These are things I pray about in private."

Yeah, right, Tom.

I'm sure you frequently throw in statistics during your nightly request for God to overturn Roe. I'm wondering if you've ever considered making a Power Point presentation so that your time alone with God can be presented in a more organized, convincing and visually-appealing fashion. I've heard God really doles out the intercession if he's presented with pie charts.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Again, I'm sure that God was relieved at finally being informed of the future professions of aborted fetuses.

This sounds like the kid, when asked to pray at the table before dinner, humbly asking that he'll get everything he wants for Christmas, in hopes that Mom and Dad get the message.

There's a time and place to lobby, but this attempt to not-so-discreetly disguise a rare chance to lobby the entire Unicam as a prayer is fairly insulting to everyone involved, especially others from the Evangelical tradition who don't appreciate the way media-grabbing events by fringe leaders continue to perpetuate unfortunate stereotypes.

And at very worst, if he's going to desecrate a prayer by making it a tool for horizontal communication about "morality", he forgot to mention the moral responsibility of our Legislature to address the problem of poverty in our state, which is a large one.

In an interesting contrast, over 10,000 clergy have signed this letter regarding Religion and Science. At least they didn't go open up School Board meetings by reading the letter as a "prayer".

The First Person to Say "I DON'T Support the Troops"

2006-01-24T10:57:00.000-06:00

Is Joel Stein of the LA Times.

I've never seen anyone move the criticism of the war from the Bush administration to the troops themselves, but Stein does it. I have a feeling this op-ed is going to be all over the place for the next few days.

Get ready for some hate mail, Joel. I disagree with him, but not in the way or for the reasons that the vast majority of red-blooded Americans will. I guess I'm one of those people who oppose the war, but don't blame 18 year olds, many of whom had no other viable option than to go into the military, for not making a moral decision about their role in the military and more specifically in Iraq.

That said, I'm glad he wrote this article. The phrase "support the troops" annoys me anyway, as it always seems to be some litmus test as to whether one is a "true American", i.e., if you don't support the war, you don't "support the troops", and that's akin to treason.

Maybe Mr. Stein will pave the way for people like me, who don't want to go as far as he does in this article, by blowing the stigma off of nonsupport for both the troops AND the war.

Tell Me What it Takes...

2006-01-19T16:53:00.000-06:00

Girl, before I met you, I was F-I-N-E, fine.
But your love made me a prisoner, now my heart's been doin' time...

Sorry, I had to get that out of my system since Steven Tyler's rendition of the song that shares this entry's title has been bouncing around my head, preventing me from writing anything for several minutes.

Now, as a Nebraska a fan, it may be a completely unnecessary exercise, but every year at about this time I like to try to set my own personal goals for the team, which if met, should result in an NCAA berth. Obviously, my goals have gone unmet since the nineties, but so far, it hasn't detered me.

Now, given the firestorm of excitement last week, a share of the conference lead, a smattering of AP and Coaches' votes, and Joe Lunardi jumping on the Big Red Bandwagon, I think a lot of us may have had brackets in our eyes.

That's been tempered now thanks to the hot hands of the Iowa State backcourt, but nonetheless, as unbelievable as it is, an NCAA Tournament berth isn't completely unrealistic if the Huskers can hold serve at home and steal a just few wins on the road.

But to address the question originally proffered by Tyler, Perry, et al., we need to look at what the NCAA committee has required from Big XII teams in the last several years in the way of overall record, conference record, and RPI. The following figures reflect the selection data since 1999, with the percentage of teams who were selected with the following bubbleicious variables:

Overall Record

NOTE: While this is probably the least predictive of any of the stats, its still worth looking at as there are certain 'landmark' numbers of wins or losses that prove to be very determinative.

Total Wins:

-21: 100% (4 for 4)
-20: 100% (6 for 6)
-19: 43% (3 for 7 thanks to 1999)
-18: 75% (3 for 4)
-17: 0% (0 for 4)

Total Losses:

-9: 80% (4 for 5, only 2005 aTm missed out)
-10: 75% (6 for 8)
-11: 75% (3 for 4)
-12: 33% (3 for 9)
-13: 0% (0 for 5)

Conference Record

10-6: 80% (8 for 10)
9-7: 88% (7 for 8)
8-8: 0% (0 for 2, but what is more amazing is that only 2 teams have gone 8-8 in 6 years)

RPI

30-39: 100% (3 for 3)
40-49: 78% (7 for 9)
50-70: 36% (4 for 11)

So, since Nebraska is currently setting 12-4 (2-1) with an RPI at 103, and 13 regular season games remaining, we can start to get an idea of what it takes for them to pull off the first trip to the Big Dance in eight years.

It looks like, at a minimum, the Huskers would have to finish the regular season at 7-6 to have a shot at the tourney. That would likely put them at 19-11 or 20-11 depending on what happened in the first two rounds of the Big XII tournament. But given the weakness of the Big XII this year, even a 9-7 conference record with 20 wins might not be enough.

Going 8-5 from here out in the regular season, however, would guarantee a 10-6 conference record, and at least 20 wins, which has been very predictive of NCAA Tournament teams from the conference, and would probably do what it takes.

So, here's what is left:

@ Kansas
@ Colorado
Mizzou
@ Okie St.
Baylor
Kansas
@ Texas
@ Iowa St.
Texas Tech
Colorado
@ aTm
Kansas St.
@ Mizzou

Can you find 8 wins in there?

An Unlikely Cowboy

2006-01-19T10:12:00.000-06:00

Every Tuesday, I get a nice email from the folks at Itunes outlining the new music that is available for purchase that particular week. Normally, I skim through it, paying half-attention to little things like the fact that the entire cast of "My Wife and Kids" now has enough clout to get their own celebrity playlists while I marvel at the fact that Fall Out Boy keeps churning out downloadable hits.

But this week, I was taken back by one of the new artists. That's right, it's the kid-shrinker, Rick Moranis. He's got a new album coming out called the Agoraphobic Cowboy which you can get on Itunes, but can only pre-order on Amazon. Could that be any weirder? As you may expect, the entire thing is something of a satire on country music, but he also says that he's been listening to a lot of Widespread Panic and String Cheese Incident, and he dabbles in playing it straight on some of the songs. I listened to snippets of the album and almost all of the songs seem like a cross between Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" and Shawn Mullins' "Lullabye" with a smidge of Chris Gaines thrown in for good measure, most of which end up with him trying too hard to be clever.

The weird thing is that the album seems to be getting fairly consistent good reviews from amateur critics on blogs and on Itunes, and I'm guessing that the music media will follow suit. I'm almost sure he'll soon show up on the ultra-hip XM Radio Channel 75, which I often play in my living room to impress guests. Man, I never thought that not thinking Rick Moranis was cool would negatively influence my own coolness, but given my historic ability to stay alongside my peers in terms of my music choices, I'm not sure why I'm surprised.

John Mabry Reads this Blog

2006-01-18T08:49:00.000-06:00

Apparently, he shares my obsession with the RPI.

A Pleasant RPI Surprise

2006-01-16T09:04:00.000-06:00

We know that the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee relies, to a degree, on RPI rankings. For example, it is fairly good bet that if you want to get an at-large bid to the dance, that you'd better end up better than #50 in the RPI (there are a few exceptions, see 2005 Iowa St.-#63 and NC state-#65, 2004 Washington-#60 and Air Force #70, 2003 NC State-#53). Also, you can almost set your watch to the rule any team that is in the top 40 of the RPI after the Conference Tournaments is nearly guaranteed an at-large spot.

However, raw ranking isn't the RPI's only value to in that weekend-long meeting in the Marriot Convention Center on the second weekend of March. The Committee also looks at one specific aspect of the RPI--each team's record vs. RPI Top 50 teams. Interestingly enough, right now there are 16 teams that have at least 3 wins against RPI top 50 teams and a winning record against those teams. They are:

RPI Rank, Team, (Record vs. Top 50)

1. Duke (5-0)
2. Memphis (4-2)
3. Wisconsin (5-1)
4. Illinois (5-1)
5. Villanova (3-1)
8. Michigan St. (5-3)
12. UCLA (5-2)
13. Texas (4-2)
15. Cincinnati (5-3)
19. Northern Iowa (4-2)
21. UCONN (4-1)
27. Creighton (4-1)
40. Iowa St. (4-2)
60. West Virginia (3-2)
67. Bradley (4-3)
91. Nebraska (3-2)

I know, its hard to believe, but I didn't even really manipulate this statistic to make Nebraska fit in this list. Right now their 5 games against RPI Top 50ers were: vs. #40 Marquette (W), vs. #39 UAB (L), @ #27 Creighton (L), vs. #34 Oklahoma (W), and @ #46 K. State (W).

Since Iowa State is currently at #50, even a win against them will likely keep Nebraska's RPI record at 3-2.

The next logical question is why Nebraska's RPI is so low when team's with comparable records against the those teams are about 30 spots higher? The answer lies in Nebraska's record against teams with RPI ratings of 200+. The Huskers have faced 7 such teams. Only three teams ranked ahead of Nebraska (Florida St., West Virginia and Air Force) have faced as many NCAA bottom-feeders.

The good news in all of this is that despite all of the criticism of NU's early schedule, the team has made for themselves a fairly solid RPI base with a good non-conference win against Marquette combined with the fact that they haven't lost a game to a non RPI top 100 team (only 14 other teams ranked 50-100 can say that). In other words, if the Huskers can eek out a 9-7 record, they'll probably put their RPI position in that important 40-50 range, which would place them right on the bubble. If that happens, it might come down to whether the Huskers win a game or two in Dallas.

Now, whether they can keep this up and win 9 league games, I have no idea. But its good to know that there's still some hope after what, at times, felt like a miserable non-conference season.

Stats Don't Lie...Most of the Time

2006-01-13T16:03:00.000-06:00

MCM, Pope and nearly every non-sports Blogger in America has directed my attention to the editorial by Larry David explaining why he isn't going to see Brokeback Mountain, which was quite entertaining. (The article, I mean. I haven't seen the movie).

In reality, I, like David, need to watch my step around that movie, not to mention the fact that I've now seen every syndicated episode of "Will & Grace" (of course, just because I always happen to be in the room when my wife is watching), as I think I already have something of a man-crush on a guy named Ken Pomeroy.

Part of the reason is that when I found his blog last year, he consistently had the most accurate College Hoops RPI numbers available on the net (that was before the NCAA made the RPI formula public for this year). As I continued to use his site daily, I got acquainted with his stats for "Offensive Efficiency" and "Defensive Efficiency", which are pretty simple, but to me, interesting. Now, ESPN.com has jumped on his bandwagon and within the last few weeks has hired him as a contributor. I guess my days of emailing him with questions about RPI scenarios will soon be long gone.

Ken says here more elequoently what I am now going to attempt to explain. Basically, the NCAA and nearly all media outlets report College hoops points per game and points allowed per game as a measure of which offenses and defenses more efficient. However, that stat does not take into account the pace of any game. Thus, if a team has more possessions, they are going to have more opportunities to score, and will likely have a higher PPG than a team with significantly less possessions per game, even if the latter team is more efficient.

Here are the formulas:

Offensive Efficiency(OE) = Points scored / (100 possessions)
Defensive Efficiency(DE) = Points allowed / (100 possessions)

Ken's site uses a "raw" number and an "adjusted" number for each of these stats. The raw number uses a team’s actual stats, not including games against non-D1 competition. The adjusted figure makes allowances for the competition faced, and in the case of efficiency, for the site of the game, and gives slightly more weight to more recent games. I prefer the raw number for crunching these numbers as I'm not quite sure how he accounts for these other factors.

Interestingly, Colorado ranks as the #2 offense according to the NCAA, but since they've tended to play at a bit of a crazy pace this year, they're the #20 in raw offensive efficiency. An example of a team that has a lot of success in a deliberate offense is Xavier, who is #6 in raw offensive efficency, but doesn't even make the NCAA's top 50 in points per game.

Defensively, the same things happens. When the NCAA Tourney rolls around, don't get suckered into picking Air Force as your big 13/4 upset because they have the #1 defense in the country. In reality, out of all 334 Division 1 teams, only Temple, Deleware St., Samford, Richmomnd and (as you might guess) Princeton play more of a slowdown game than AFA based upon the Pomeroy possessions per game statistics. That translates to Air Force having only the 49th best numbers in the nation for raw defensive efficiency.

In any case, this may or may not bore most of you, but I always am annoyed by the fact that so many pundits glean their predictions off of statistics like PPG in college basketball. I've got the same problem with the way the leaders Rushing Defense, Offense and Passing Defense and Offense are calculated by the NCAA football statistics department. I'm sure I'll post on that as football season draws closer.

Oh, and for you Husker fans:

-Nebraska plays at the 119th fastest pace in the nation. Right in the middle.

-Nebraska ranks as the 150th offense accorcing to the NCAA, but as the 170th according to Pomeroy's adjusted and raw numbers.

-Nebraska ranks as the 73rd best scoring defense according to the NCAA, but as the 21st best according to Pomeroy's raw efficiency number.

Things I Think are Overrated

2006-01-13T09:43:00.000-06:00

1. Wedding Crashers- I'm going to think of an idea for a movie that is good for 15 minutes. Then I'm going to beat it like a dead horse for another 2 hrs.
2. New Years- I think I'm 3/28 as far as fun goes for new years.
3. Texas Hold 'em- If you think about it, it's really not that fun.
4. California- Whats so cool about fires, mudslides, earthquakes, smog, rain season and traffic? Ok they do have commercials with Eric Estrada.
5. American Idol- People who can't sing should not be put on TV to be told they can't sing.
6. Capri Pants- Somehow women have found a way to wear them in the winter. The only people that have an excuse to wear capri pants are people that live in New Orleans. And even they shouldn't wear them.
7. Ansel Adams posters- Trees have snow on them when its snowing. Neat.

You're More than Welcome

2006-01-12T16:03:00.000-06:00

I've always kind of laughed when someone tells me that I'm "more than welcome" to do something, as if there is some feasible but unnamed zone of freedom to engage in an offered activity that is so free of any encubrance that it actually goes to an entirely different level...we're talking about an unknown level...beyond "welcome".

After giving it some thought, if I am welcome by another person to do something, I guess that means they'll accept my participation. But if you enter the "more than welcome" zone, are you than obligated to participate? Isn't that just a nice way of saying "You're not only welcome, but I'd be kind of pissed if you didn't do this".

In any case, I just wanted to tell anyone new to this blog, that you're more than welcome to come back whenever you'd like. And since The Option Blog is two days old, I guess "new to this blog" includes pretty much everyone

In any case, The Option contributors hope you enjoy your stay. We're probably going to take you in several different directions, all of which are almost certainly of interest to you if you're a male between the ages of 25 and 40 (I had to keep that upper limit down because I guarantee I'll post something about video games within the next few weeks), and it'll probably help if you're a maniacal Husker fan. In other words, this is the place to find alternating bitching and overconfidence about Nebraska football, basketball and baseball, commentary on the entire sports world, music, politics, religion, technology, video games, movies, food, drink and cigars. The thing we've got in common is that we're all about the same age, we're Husker fans, and we all like to tell everyone in sight about our thoughts.

You're more than welcome to read on. But if you leave any mean-spirited comments, I just might get litigious on your ass.

Best Radio Stations in the United States

2006-01-12T14:57:00.000-06:00

I used to work for an advertising agency that placed ads all over the US. My job was to place my clients commercials on a radio station and get the most bang for the buck. I used to be able to tell you the stations that had the highest ratings in the country. This didn't always equate to a good station, but would put more ears listening to our ads. Since we couldn't listen to the stations physically everyday they sometimes would send us sample CD's of the music they played. This is where I'm coming up with what I think are some of the best stations in the country. People in our office used to fight over the following sample CD's.

1. KCRW-FM Santa Monica, CA KCRW has become highly influential in the music industry; Nick Harcourt has particular clout as many music executives listen to Morning Becomes Eclectic whilst stuck in Los Angeles' infamous morning traffic. KCRW has been credited with discovering or promoting many artists, including Beck, Coldplay, Dido, and Norah Jones.
Download: Sufjan Stevens- Chicago (Live on KCRW)

2. KEXP-FM Seattle, WA (formerly KCMU) is a public radio station based in Seattle, Washington, that specializes in independent and alternative rock programmed by its disk jockeys. Its broadcasting license is owned by the University of Washington, which operates the station in a partnership with Paul Allen's Experience Music Project.
Download: Brendan Benson- Spit It Out (Live on KEXP)

3. WXRT-FM Chicago, IL XRT, as it is affectionately called, plays a very broad library of mostly adult-oriented rock music between the mid-1950s and present, including blues, reggae, folk-rock, pop music, and rock 'n' roll. There has been remarkably little disc jockey turnover at XRT since it began in 1972. The station is hard to define musically. They play well over 2,000 cuts on a regular basis. Most artists come from the Classic Rock or Alternative rock genre, though they play many other styles. The format as it exists today began in 1972 as a night-time-only progressive rock radio experiment, sharing the 93.1 frequency with a variety of different ethnic and foreign language programming that aired during the daylight hours.
Download: Big Head Todd and the Monsters- Broken Hearted Savior (Live on WXRT Studio-X)

4. KBCO-FM is an adult album alternative radio station licensed to Boulder, Colorado and serves the Denver-Boulder area. The station's format is an ecletic variety of blues, reggae, folk, pop, and rock from the late-1960s to the present, which they call "world class rock".
Download: Drive-By Truckers (Live on KBCO Studio-C)

Fonseca 5/50

2006-01-12T12:35:00.000-06:00

DISCLAIMER: I've recently taken up smoking cigars as a hobby and want to share my experiences with various smokes with all of you. Before I get to far into this review let me lay the groundwork for this and future reviews.

First, I'm a relative cigar newbie so read accordingly. I'm a big fan of top25cigar.com, and will be adopting their "no snob" approach to reviewing my smokes. Second, since a line of cigars can vary from stick to stick you shouldn't form an opinion on a brand unless you've smoked a couple of them. Third, inform yourself from a variety of sources. Read onlines reviews (like those at top25cigar.com), ask friends, and once you find a smoke you like ask your local tobaccanist for a similar cigar you would like to try.

I'm going to develop a scale for the cigars, 1 to 5:
1. "Hyman Roth" A dog turd of a cigar, one I won't smoke again, and would warn others not to try.
2. "The Fredo", this stick tries, but nothing I would actively seek out mostly because I'm unsure if it will result in a pleasing smoke.
3. "The Brasi" a solid cigar that will be a trustworthy smoke pulled from your humi.
4. "The Consigliere" a sophisticated smoke, one that I will smoke again and would recommend to friends with confidence.
5. "The Don" An exceptional cigar, worthy of purchasing by the box. A choice smoke that I would pass out at a daughters wedding.

Now that the groundword is laid, on with the review.

With the beautiful (for Nebraska) weather we are experiencing, I took the opportunity yesterday afternoon to light up a cigar while studying outside on my patio. I grabbed a Fonseca 5/50 from my humi. The 5/50 is a robusto, not suprisingly its 5 inches in length, with a ring guage fo 50. The label is gold with a distinctive script F in red with the word Fonseca running down the middle of the F.

The 5/50 has a connecticut wrapper, light in color. The wrapper had a creamy aftertaste, common with other connecticuts I have smoked. The 'gar lit nicely, the first third burned a little uneven, but was near perfect after that, and had good draw throughout . The taste was slightly bitter at first, but that quickly vanished, replaced with a nice mild and smooth smoke. This was a perfect afternoon cigar, because it was so smooth and light.

The stick had a woody tast, but no noticeable flavor; not bland, just unexciting. It produced a nice amount of smoke. The ash was was a medium gray and held together pretty well, however you could see it breaking apart in places.

Final grade: 3
I'll try the Fonseca again, under the right conditions. Perfect for a time when you want a cigar but don't want it to knock it off your feet.

Read how others rated of the Fonseca 5/50.

Vince Young's Throwing Motion

2006-01-11T11:25:00.000-06:00

Found this to be a little funny.

Sean Taylor's Saliva

2006-01-11T11:14:00.000-06:00

(Photo courtesy of Doug Benc/Getty/SI.com)

While I'm not sure if it rivals the snot all over Al Harris' face after he picked off Matt Hasselbeck in to win a playoff game two years ago as the greatest facial-bodily fluid play ever to occur in a playoff game in January, the Sean Taylor Spitting incident was pretty confusing and exciting as it resulted in one of the most blatant, clear, and seen-by-the-ref physical attacks which ended up not being flagged that I've ever seen.

But check out this video, which I found on Deadspin, which is great because it includes not only visual evidence of the messy spittle coming from Taylor but actual audio of referee Mike Carey's discussions with other referees and the Redskins about the call.

While Carey, in my opinion, has shown himself to be the most talented referee in the NFL at explaning his reasoning for ruling on replays, I fail to understand why Pittman doesn't get a flag for smacking Taylor in retaliation. Apparently it is not unsportsmanlike to retailiate. I wonder if the same would have held true if Taylor swung at Pittman rather than hocked a lugie. It wasn't like it was necessary to defend himself. Just a thought. Former 'Canes suck.

You may also remember, that this isn't the first problem the former Cane has had keeping himself on the field. Who says Marcus Vick doesn't have an NFL future?

The best cigar of 2005, and perhaps 2006 (already)

2006-01-11T10:18:00.000-06:00

This was my favorite cigar in 2005. I've only had one cigar in 2006 (see picture thanks of Gurhka.com) but it may turn out to be the winner for the year. Luca was friendly enough to share the Gurkha with me from the bundle he won at one of my new favorite webistes, cigarbid.com, (which is permanently linked on the sidebar), and we enjoyed it on one of the many balmy January nights we've seen so far.

Seriously, if you like cigars, take a look at that site--its a good way to buy a few or an assortment without having to buy a box until you know what you like.

That John Denver...

2006-01-11T08:33:00.000-06:00

The weather in Nebraska has been absolutely crazy for the last month. And by absolutely crazy, I mean luscious. When I realized that half of the people in my office were making plans to golf this afternoon, I started to wonder about global warming. To quote the late Mike Peterson (MCM can correct me if this isn't accurate), we can discuss the science of global warming or we can sit around and talk, and I don't know a damn thing about the science of global warming.

So, I think the next scapegoat (I don't quite know if that's the right word to use when I'm referring to one who is responsible for what I'd consider a positive turn of events) is the good Old Farmers' Almanac. Check out what it had to say about the "North Central Region" for January and February:

January 20061st-3rd. Snow. 4th-7th. Stormy, with snow for the Dakotas,
Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa. Mixed snow, sleet, and freezing rain for
Kansas and Missouri. 8th-11th. Unsettled, with blustery winds. 12th-15th.
Clearing. Chilly winds diminish. 16th-19th. Stormy. Heavy snow for the
Northern Rockies, with 8 to 16 inches possible. 20th-23rd. Clearing skies
and cold. 24th-27th. Unsettled and blustery. 28th-31st. Clouds, wind, and
snow.

February 20061st-3rd. Blizzard, with 16 inches possible. Clearing
away by the 3rd. 4th-7th. Fair and much colder. 8th-11th. Unsettled, with
snow for the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska, and sleet for Kansas and
Missouri. 12th-15th. More stormy weather. 16th-19th. Clearing and colder.
20th-23rd. Snow spreads east. 24th-28th. Yet another round of stormy weather
pushes in.

Yeah, I wouldn't describe today as "unsettled" or "blustery", other than the slight breeze that is caused by all of the golf clubs being simultaneously swung.

So, the moral of the story is, while its OK for me to say in August 2005 that Boston College will end up in the ACC Title game and the final top 10 and end up being wrong, it is not OK for the Farmers' Almanac to miss out on today's weather with a prediction that was proffered approximately 6 months ago.

I hope the Farmers' Almanac is as innacurate with their predictions for February as I was about Tennessee cruising through SEC East.

So this is it

2006-01-10T15:53:00.000-06:00

This apparently is the Option Blog. Just giving it a go, trying to test it out. Big ups to the Option.

No better way to kick-off The Option Blog...

2006-01-10T15:44:00.000-06:00

Than with everyone's all-time favorite pic.

Welcome aboard--it's a little early to tell what you'll end up reading here, but it will likely span the gamut from politics to college football to music to cigars to nintendo games. I'll save most of my rants to making absurd sports predictions, but the rest of the authors will make this one well-ass rounded place to be.