8.12.10 1:47 pm by Brian
Even though the regular seasons for both NCAA and NFL football are still weeks off, both leagues have been making headlines since the end of their respective seasons. Unfortunately, some of these headlines haven’t been very positive. On the NCAA side, investigations into sports agents and the integrity of programs have been daily stories, and the Big XII Conference nearly dissolved before it was saved at the last minute. On the NFL side, free agency has been exciting but the looming thunderhead cloud of a potential locked-out season in 2011 has caused contract disputes, training camp holdouts, and general apprehension for all who are invested in the National Football League.
Much of this is off-field; I want to look at something in the NCAA game that has been a hot-button topic for years now: the Bowl Championship Series.
I’m not going to suggest a perfect solution to the “problem” of the BCS, because countless writers have done so before me and just about as many writers have tried to defend the integrity of the BCS for the game. Those are all fine and good ideas, and I won’t pretend that I have anything new to bring to the table.
The perspective I am taking is the perspective of a college teacher—which is what I do for my job when I’m not writing on this site—and how the “culture of perfection” nurtured by the BCS system fundamentally works against the environment of teaching in those colleges across the country.
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4.12.10 3:02 pm by Alex
For the last few weeks, we’ve been narrowing a field of hypothetical NCAA teams featuring players that have left early for the NBA, but would still have been eligible for this year’s tournament (if you missed it, check out previous posts here, here, here, and here).
Our final match-up is not at all surprising. It features two would-be seniors who went one and two in the 2008 NBA Draft in Greg Oden of Ohio State and Kevin Durant of Texas. Their NBA careers have been heading in different directions: Durant is a budding superstar leading a young team to the playoffs, and Oden whose career has been hampered by injuries and camera phone penis photos. At any rate, it could have been an exciting rivalry these past few years, if not for their early NBA exits.
Here are the lineups. Be sure to vote in the poll at the bottom. Voting closes midnight Friday.
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4.03.10 7:15 pm by Alex
We’ve arrived at a Final Four, both here in the what-if world of 4-year college stars and in reality. Here are the voting results from the Elite Eight:
- #1 Ohio State over #3 Pittsburgh, 100% of vote (no love for Blair & Co.?)
- #1 UCLA over #2 USC, 65% of vote
- #2 Kentucky over #1 Memphis, 56% of vote (only upset of Elite Eight)
- #1 Texas over #3 Carolina, 72% of vote (not even the droves of Carolina fans could stop Durant)
Here’s the Final Four bracket, matchups and polls for voting (polls open until Wednesday night). Have at it:
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3.30.10 2:22 pm by Alex
Alright, the first round of voting is complete for the What-If Sweet 16. Here are the results:
- MIDWEST: #1 Ohio State over #4 Georgia Tech, 88% of vote; #3 Pittsburgh over #2 Syracuse, 53% of vote.
- WEST: #1 UCLA over #4 St. Mary’s, 81% of vote; #2 USC over #3 Duke, 61% of vote.
- EAST: #1 Memphis over #4 Arizona, 80% of vote; #2 Kentucky over #3 Kansas, 60% of vote.
- SOUTH: #1 Texas over #4 Oklahoma, 73% of vote; #3 North Carolina over #2 Kansas State, 70% of vote.
Here’s the bracket for the Elite Eight:
In case you missed the previous posts, here are the lineups/matchups again. The voting takes place right after each set of teams.
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3.26.10 1:56 pm by Alex
Ah, it’s that time of year. March Madness is upon us. We get to see up-and-coming basketball stars compete in games with the greatest of consequences. Sadly though, most of these players will only remain in college for a year, and will then head on to the professional ranks. But what if these guys stuck around until they were seniors? Up until the mid 70s, players were required to be four years removed from high school graduation in order to sign an NBA contract. Since then, the rules have been modified, and players often leave early, leaving us to wonder, what their college careers would have looked like had they remained in school.
We’ve taken the liberty of going through the last 3 years worth of NBA early entrants, and seeding the top 16 based on what could have been. It’s amazing to see some of these lineups, and the top few seeds have especially stout starting fives. We all love upsets, but it’s hard to imagine Northern Iowa or Cornell upsetting one of these teams. Today and tomorrow we’ll announce the 16 teams. There will be a poll below each match-up, which will be open for the next week (Polls are closed, check back soon for the Elite Eight). Next weekend, we’ll come up with an Elite Eight and go from there. Here are the four teams from both the West and Midwest regions. Be sure to check back tomorrow for the both the East and South regions. (* indicates player no longer with team in reality)
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6.13.09 8:26 pm by Will
Editors Note: I’m happy to introduce a new writer to theSportsGeeks.com. This is Will’s first, but hopefully not last article here, and its very impressive if I do say so myself. -Alex
As a Boston Red Sox fan, I was very excited about this week’s series between my beloved Sawx and the hated Yankees. NESN, the network that carries Sox games in New England, knew that the clash between the titans of the AL East was something that fans like me would get really amped up about, so they started showing commercials for the games about a week in advance. The one that really struck me was one that featured Jason Bay. It showed him sitting in the locker room, talking about how exciting the prospect of a Sox-Yanks series was. He mentioned how “[Red Sox-Yankees] is the biggest rivalry in sports.” Jason was very, very incorrect.
Before I point out 10 rivalries that are bigger/more ferocious/more important than the Sox and Yankees, it would be unfair to completely discount the intensity of their feud. The Boston and New York clubs have a humongous, all-consuming rivalry that is probably the biggest in American professional sports. Sure, someone could make an argument for Cowboys-Redskins, Mets-Phillies, Celtics-Lakers, or Maple Leafs-Canadiens, (I know that last one isn’t exactly “American” sports, but they play in the NHL, so whatever.) However, oftentimes these rivalries go stale for extended periods, because, unlike baseball, other American sports have salary caps, which makes it difficult for teams to amass the same kind of talent that the Sox and Yankees attract every off-season by virtue of their greater resources, keeping each team competitive and relevant every single season, something that teams in the NFL, NBA, and NHL just can’t do. For example, the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacremento Kings had the biggest rivalry in the NBA for a short period in the early 2000′s. Shaq called them the Queens, Phil Jackson called Sacremento a “Cow Town,” and the two played in one of the most entertaining and controversial NBA playoff series of all time, the 2002 Western Conference Finals, which included a Robert Horry buzzer beater in Game 4, and a Game 6 that disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy has insisted was fixed by the referees in the Lakers’ favor. This series was followed by a 2003 preseason dust-up between Rick Fox and Doug Christie. Then, Shaq got traded and the Kings faded away, and the rivalry was dead. The Sox and Yanks will never fade away, until a salary cap comes in, or they are purchased by a more frugal ownership group, neither of which looks like happening anytime soon. Also, very few, if any rivalries in American sports have the history, mythology, and twists and turns that are intrinsic in the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. However, The Sox and Yanks fans don’t share the same devotion, investment, and antipathy towards the opposition that some rivalries on this list suggest, nor does the rivalry have the same extreme outlandishness of others. Sox-Yankees is a great rivalry, but not as great as the ten that I will present to you (in no particular order).
New Zealand vs. South Africa – Rugby
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