Weekend Sports Review

Ohio State loses another national championship game in 2007. This time it was Men's Soccer. The team made an improbable run to the championship game and even held a 1-0 lead into the second half only to fall to Wake Forest 2-1.


Rich Rodriguez is the new head football coach at Michigan. A lot of people will question whether or not his system will fit with the personnel at Michigan but if you look at the teams he coached for in the 90's (Tulane, Clemson) it shows that the offense allows for the team to throw the ball around a little bit. Also it is possible that stud super recruit Terrelle Pryor could attend Michigan next year and start from day one. Dan Shanoff called Pryor a love child of Pat White and Tim Tebow, I have heard "Vince Young Lite". Either way I think Rodriguez will do well at Michigan, I am not sure he will do better than Lloyd Carr, but I think he will have the Wolverines competing for a Big Ten title most years and an occasional national title.

Good to see Troy Smith finally getting some snaps for Baltimore, too bad someone (Kyle Boller) had to get hurt for it to happen. I can’t stand the Ravens, but it is hard to root against Smith, I hope he uses his chance to prove he can play in the NFL. Leading your team to tie the game and set them up for the game winning field goal is a step in the right direction, but losing to the Dolphins hurts.

Dynasty Alert.... Appalachian State (1-AA) wins their third title in three years. Carroll College (NAIA) wins their 5th title in 6 years.


Later today or tomorrow I will post a break down of the 10 years of the BCS title game (and other division title games).

Beer of the Week

Week of December 17 2007 --- Beer of the Week


Winter Hook




Winter Hook Winter Ale from Red Hook brewery is probably the best winter brew I have tried this season. It has all the right flavors without them being so overpowering that you can barely stand to drink more than one. If you are in the mood for a winter ale to warm you up this holiday season run out and buy a sixer of Winter Hook.

Maps

If you happen to be a sports nut mixed in with a little bit of a geography nerd you will enjoy this site. Sport Map World. Someone took the time and used Google maps to layout the locations of all the teams in different leagues around the world. It is a good place to kill 15 minutes (or 3 hours if you really don't want to be productive).

Best on the Net

Scouring the interwebs to find the best stuff out there so you don't have to.

It seems like 90% of the internets were talking about the Mitchell Report this week. Being that I could really care less who used steroids, I will totally avoid linking to it. Anyhow, here are the links of the week:


Awesome beer pong tables. (The Beer Blog)


Kick ass trout. (HT: Deadspin)


No wonder we can't have playoffs. (The Wizard of Odds)


A little Ohio State football update. (Buckeye Commentary)

On Tap (College Football Championship Edition)

Helping you get your weekend viewing priorities straight since 2007

Friday

7:30 (ESPNU) UMass vs. Ohio State. Men’s Soccer Final 4. Key Fact: This is soccer, I expect no one who is reading this will watch this game, but I thought just in case I would let you know that it is on.

8:00 (ESPN2) Delaware vs. Appalachian State. Division 1 (AA) Football Championship game. It is fitting that App State plays a team in blue and yellow with winged helmets to end the year, now if only Delaware was coached by Lloyd Carr. App. State is playing for their 3^rd title in 3 years. Key Fact: This game should be an awesome battle between quarterbacks with vastly different styles: Joe Flacco (Delaware) is a classic drop back passer with NFL aspirations, and Armanti Edwards (App. St.), a duel threat QB with 1750 yards passing and 1499 yards rushing.

Saturday

12:00 (ESPN) Oklahoma State vs. Pitt. (hoops)

12:00 (ESPN2) NW Missouri State vs. Valdosta State. NCAA Division II National Championship. NWMS avenged last year’s championship loss to Grand Valley State (while also ending GVSU’s 40 game winning streak) in one of the semifinals, and Valdosta came back to defeat California (of Pennsylvania that is) in the other. Key Fact: I watched about 9 minutes of NWMS’s last game, their running back looked quite good.

1:00 (CSTV) Sioux Falls vs. Carroll. NAIA National Championship. Sioux Falls is trying to repeat as national champion. Carroll is trying to regain the throne that they held for the previous 4 years before Sioux Falls. Key Fact: I attended Montana Tech for undergrad and Carroll College was like our Michigan. Imagine watching Michigan play for 5 out of 6 national titles while rolling over OSU two times per year; how bad would that suck? Plus my sister went to Carroll. So GO SIOUX FALLS!!!

2:00 (ESPN) UAB vs. Kentucky. (hoops)

3:00 (ESPN2) Arkansas vs. Oklahoma. (hoops)

3:30 (CBS) Louisville @ Purdue. (hoops)

4:00 (ESPN) Mount Union vs. Wisconsin-Whitewater. Division III National Championship. Does Mount Union ever not play for the D-III title? That is a serious question, not that I watch a lot of D-III football but I can’t remember a year where they were not in the game. (Some quick wikipediaing has revealed since 1996 Mount Union has been in all but 2 title games where they have won 8, losing only once). This is the third straight year that the schools will face off for the title with Mount Union winning the two previous contests. Key Fact: Only the John Wooden led UCLA Bruins dynasty can even compare to the kind of dominance that has be laid down by Mount Union in the last 12 years.

5:00 (ESPN2) Ohio vs. Kansas. (hoops)

7:00 (ESPN2) Memphis vs. Middle Tennessee State. (hoops)

Sunday

1:00 (CBS) Buffalo @ Cleveland. The winner of this game will be in the driver’s seat for the final AFC Playoff spot. Key Fact: If you would have told me that at the beginning of the season I would have punched you in the jaw.

I still have not watched much college basketball. Once I have the faintest idea of what is going on, I will provide my usual limited/skewed/blatantly wrong analysis.

* there is very little respect for the word fact around here.

all times eastern

Semifinals

After a week of voting and whopping six votes (I choose to ignore the one person that stopped by and only voted for Hawaii to beat OSU) the semifinals are set in the first annual IJWDBAPA college football playoffs.

#1 OSU vs. #4 Oklahoma

#6 WVU vs. #7 Georgia

Same as last week, vote for who you think would win (or who you would like to win)

Bowl Pick'em Contest

I usually have a NCAA Basketball bracket contest on Yahoo!, but this year I have expanded to college football as well. So to join the inaugural IJWDBAPA college bowl pick'em go to

http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/bowl

pick join group

put in your yahoo ID

and enter this information

Group ID: 19352

Password: buckeyes

(isn't that password original)

and pick away, the winner gets something. What? Yeah it's worth will depend on who wins, for example if it is me: eleventy billion dollars.

Beer of the Week

Week of December 10 2007 --- Beer of the Week

Busch Light (aka Nectar of the Gods)





Busch Light is the greatest beer on Earth. And because this is the greatest week of the year, Busch Light must serve as Beer of the Week. Also it has been proven that nothing helps you through a quarter life crisis like Busch Light (this is fact people, look it up).

Best on the Net

Scouring the interwebs to find the best stuff out there so you don't have to.

Just three quick links this week.

Grand Slam of Curling? Hell yes!!! (Lion in Oil)

The real Heisman Trophy winner (NOIS)

Cow Hunting? Awesome picture. (The Big Lead)

On Tap

Helping you get your weekend viewing priorities straight since 2007

Thursday

9:30 (ESPN) LSU @ #21 Villanova.

Friday

8:00 (ESPN2) Richmond @ Appalachian State. Football Championship Subdivision (1-AA) semifinal #1. App. State is the two time defending 1-AA champion. Last week Richmond beat Wofford who beat App. State just 3 weeks after their dramatic upset of then #5 Michigan. Key Fact: If Jerry Moore (App State Coach) were 10 years younger he would be picked by a 1-A school about 2 hours after his team’s season was over.

Saturday

12:00 (ESPN) #24 Arizona @ Illinios

2:00 (ESPN) DePaul @ #3 Kansas

2:00 (CBS) Michigan @ #7 Duke

2:00 (ESPN2) Dayton @ #11 Louisville

3:00 (FSN) #9 Pitt @ Washington

4:00 (CBS) Kentucky @ #15 Indiana

4:00 (ESPN) Delaware @ Southern Illinois. 1-AA semifinal #2. Southern Illinois is the only seeded team (#4) left in the playoff. Delaware knocked off #1 seed Northern Iowa last week to advance to the semifinal. Key Fact: Delaware’s mascot is the Blue Hens, if that does not get you fired up to root for a football team I don’t know what will.

Both the NCAA division II and division III will be holding their semifinal games this day. I could not find if there are any national (or local) broadcasts for these games, but that is due to a complete lack of trying.

(Update: Grand Valley State @ Northwest Missouri State is on ESPN2 at 9:00 PM)

Sunday

4:00 (CBS) Cleveland @ NY Jets. Cleveland is coming off a debatable loss at Arizona and the Jets are coming off a whooping of Miami. This game is key for Cleveland’s playoff hopes. Key Fact: Romeo Crennel vs. Eric Mangini would probably be the best head coach sumo wrestling match up imaginable (NFL only, cause Mark Mangino, Kansas head coach, would obviously handle them both).

Notice the complete lack of information about the college basketball games. I have yet to watch more the about 5 full halves of Ohio State games and about 31.5 combined minutes of other hoop action. Once I have the faintest idea of what is going on, I will provide my usual limited/skewed/blatantly wrong analysis.

* there is very little respect for the word fact around here.

all times eastern

Playoff

If you look to the right you will see some polls have been added where you can vote for who you think would win in the fictitious playoff match ups posted earlier.

Here at IJWDBAPA we will crown our own mythical national champion.

So vote early and vote often.

Oh Yeah

Today is Repeal Day!!!

On December 5th, 1933 the US government officially repealed prohibition. I can't think of a better reason to crack open a beer and celebrating.



Repeal Day

Playoffs?

The playoff the Yeti would like to see.

Quarter Finals

#1 Ohio State (Big 10) vs. #8 Hawaii (Mid major) (Citrus Bowl)

#2 LSU (SEC) vs. #7 Georgia (at-large) (Cotton Bowl)

#3 Virginia Tech (ACC) vs. #6 WVU (Big East) (Peach Bowl)

#4 Oklahoma (Big 12) vs. #5 USC (PAC 10) (Rose Bowl)

Semi Finals

OSU/Haw vs. OU/USC (Fiesta Bowl)

LSU/Georgia vs. VT/WVU (Orange Bowl)

Championship

Semifinal winners (Sugar Bowl)

The playoff includes 6 BCS conference champions and 2 at-large teams. Undefeated mid-majors are automatically qualified (unless more than 2, then go by BCS rankings). If no qualified mid-majors, at-large bids go to the highest ranked remaining teams as determined by the BCS. Seeds based on final BCS standings (BCS conference champions always get the 6 highest seeds).

Back For More

Ohio State will once again (3rd time in 6 years) be playing for the BCS title. They will be taking on LSU in their backyard (New Orleans).



More impressive than Tressel leading the Buckeyes to the championship game 3 times in 7 years is that in his 22 years as a head coach he has finished the season with a championship game NINE times.


All hail coach Sweatervest.

Beer of the Week

Week of December 3 2007 --- Beer of the Week

Samuel Adams Winter Lager

It is not quite winter yet, but it is cold enough outside to be enjoying beers that have winter in their name. Since I almost thought about drinking a Samuel Adams Winter Lager yesterday, it will serve as this week's beer of the week.