Monday, August 6, 2007

Google Reader

If you don't use Google Reader, you should. You can use it to keep track of all your friend's blogs, news, sports, etc. I created a video on how I use Google Reader to keep track of the things that I'm interested in.

College Football and Water Balloons

A recent wave of water balloon crimes have swept across the nation. A tight end from Indiana pegged an off-duty police officer on the way home from work. In other news, a BYU linebacker got pretty ticked about his girlfriend being pegged with a water baloon and busted down 2 doors in pursuit of the horrible criminal. What's next, "Miami running back holds up Quick Mart with water balloon?"
Dufus from Indiana
Idiot from BYU

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Board Games

Our friends Dawn and Barry came down from Norman a few weeks ago to visit us and they brought a board game with them that we played. We liked it so much that we went out and bought it. It is called Ticket to Ride. In the game you collect cards, connect cities with your trains, and try to connect certain routes across the United States. It is a lot of fun.

Ticket to Ride Website

My all time favorite board game is Acquire, which is no longer in print. You can still get a copy, but you have to pay high dollar on eBay for them. I saw one on eBay that started the bidding at $99, with a Buy It Now for $135! Thanks to our friends Roger and Angie for introducing us to Acquire.

Preseason, Schmeeseason

So, the first USA Today PreSeason Poll came out today. I would like to preface this article saying that I think that preseason polls are a bunch of crap. They're like bikinis - they show some, but not what is important - how the teams perform on the field. I personally think that there should be any polls until several weeks into the season. But, as long as the media puts the polls out there, it gives us something to talk about.

Big surprise that USC is number one, right? Well, I wouldn't want to ever be ranked PreSeason #1. In the USA Today poll, only 3 times have the preseason #1 actually went on to win a national championship. USC started first and finished there in 2004. Florida State did the same in 1993 and '99. Those are the only instances a preseason No. 1 became national champ. (Article here...). LSU is #2, followed by Florida, Texas and Michigan to round out the top 5. Let's take a look at how the different conferences stack up.



SEC - 6 top 25 teams - the most of any conference. Actually, all are in the top 20 - impressive!
LSU (#2)
Florida (#3)
Georgia (#13)
Auburn (#14)
Tennessee (#15)
Arkansas (#20)

Big 10

Michigan (#5)
Wisconsin (#7)
Ohio State (#10)
Penn State (#18)

Big 12
Texas (#4)
Oklahoma (#8)
Nebraska (#19)
Texas A&M (#25)

Pac 10
USC (#1)
California (#12)
UCLA (#17)

Big East
West Virginia (#6)
Louisville (#11)
Rutgers (#16)

ACC
Virginia Tech (#9)
Florida State (#21)

WAC
Boise State (#23)
Hawaii (#24)

Mountain West
TCU (#22) - Mountain West

In summary, from most to least. For the tiebreakers where conferences had the same number of teams in the top 25, I averaged the rankings and took the lowest score.
#1 - SEC (6)
#2 - Big 10 (4) - tiebreaker average ranking - 10
#3 - Big 12 (4) - tiebreaker average ranking - 14

#4 - Pac 10 (3) - tiebreaker average ranking - 10
#5 - Big East (3) - tiebreaker average ranking - 11

#6 - ACC (2) - tiebreaker average ranking - 15
#7 - WAC (2) - tiebreaker average ranking - 23.5

#8 - Mountain West (1)

Who would have thought that the Big East would have as many preseason ranked teams as the Pac 10? Or that the WAC would have as many preseason ranked teams as the ACC? This always begs the argument, which is the best conference? Top to bottom, most would agree that the SEC is the best conference. The Pac 10 once again showed that they have one strong team up top, but the rest is not much. The interesting ones for me this year is to see how the Big 10 and Big 12 compare. Both have 4 preseason top teams and lots of potential.

It should be an interesting season - I'll be analyzing the rankings and conferences from time to time throughout the season. As a Texas fan and Big 12 fan, I long for the days of 4 top 10 Big 12 teams (Texas, OU, Nebraska, K-State, and sometimes Colorado). I'm also hoping that OU and Texas are both 5-0 going into the Red River Shootout. Texas needs to get past TCU and K-state (both at home), and OU needs to get past Miami(FL) (at home), and both should be able to do it. There's nothing better than a Red River Shootout with 2 undefeated top 10 teams. More to come later...