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All of us here at Kanan Sports wish you and yours a happy and prosperous 2011!

College Football Predictions - Bowl Season

Pro Football Predictions - Week 17

-Kanan

College Football is a Privilege, Not a Right

Let me summarize the coverage and ‘analysis’ of the Ohio State scandal: “I am absolutely outraged that the NCAA is not suspending these players for the Sugar Bowl, this shows the NCAA is only about money!  And by the way, why shouldn’t these players be able to receive some kind of compensation, the universities are obviously making money off of them!” 

Mark May even went as far as to suggest that in a dictionary they should add ‘(NCAA)’ next to their entry for hypocrisy.  Might I humbly suggest adding ‘(ESPN)’ as well?  Nah, there’s nothing hypocritical about spending so much energy condemning the BCS, which they also spend so much time and money trying to sell us, that’s just business, and there’s nothing wrong with business… unless you’re the NCAA.

I actually wrote about why we shouldn’t pay college athletes, I encourage you to read it as it is one of my better thought out entries (as opposed to this crap).  Obviously these players violated the letter of the law and should not play in the Sugar Bowl, but where the fuck was this outrage with Cam Newton?  That blew over pretty quickly.  In fact the running joke throughout ESPN’s programming was ‘they should’ve said their dad did it,’ well I’m glad we can joke about that now.

What actually upsets me is this painting of college athletes as victims who need to resort to breaking the rules to ‘help their families.’  Did Terrelle Pryor’s mom really need a tattoo for her son?  These cookie-cutter analysts insist there should be a way for players to be compensated, arguing at the unfairness of Ohio State receiving royalties from selling player likenesses.  They couldn’t be more wrong!

Playing College Football is a privilege, not a right.  If players don’t feel a full scholarship is fair compensation for their services, then don’t fucking play.  It is the National Football League that requires players to be two and a half years out of High School to be eligible to play, not the NCAA.  If players don’t find that fair, maybe they can sue the NFL, it worked wonders for Maurice Clarett.

College Football Predictions – Bowl Season

Pro Football Predictions – Week 16

-Kanan

The Five Stages of Grief

The Kübler-Ross model, commonly known as the five stages of grief, was first introduced by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her 1969 book, On Death and Dying.  Applying this model to the College Football coaching carousel we get:

1. Denial – "There’s no way Will Muschamp would ever leave Texas, it’s just a rumor."
2. Anger – "I HATE YOU, WILL MUSCHAMP, I HOPE YOU AND YOUR PRECIOUS GATORS LOSE EVERY FUCKING GAME!"
3. Bargaining – "Okay, we got a lot of money, we’ll make Will Muschamp a good offer and Mack Brown will agree to step down after next season."
4. Depression – "I'm so sad, why bother with anything?  Football is dead to me!”
5. Acceptance – "Oh well, guess this is what it’s like to be a Notre Dame fan..."

If you haven't yet, join my College Football Bowl Pick 'Em league on Yahoo, its fun and free, no password required! http://y.ahoo.it/F8ddHadi

College Football Predictions – Bowl Season

Pro Football Predictions – Week 15

-Kanan

The Greatest Rose Bowl That Never Was

Seems like even the staunchest BCS bashers are okay with the Auburn and Oregon National Championship Game. Part of me is disappointed that the pro-TCU ranting wasn’t anywhere nearly as loud as the pro-Boise State was prior to their loss to Nevada. I think that is because deep down, pundits know TCU recruits better athletes, has a championship history, and has “sold-out” to the BCS by agreeing to join the Big East.

But I digress. There should be outrage about the BCS this year, and it’s not being written about because it is a non-AQ doing the screwing. You see all the bitching and moaning about the BCS made an impact on the BCS team selection guidelines. The revision came in 2009 and it makes the Rose Bowl automatically select a qualified non-AQ team if the Rose Bowl loses a team to the National Championship Game. That is how we ended up with TCU playing Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.

That clause that sent TCU to Pasadena just happened to rob us of a traditional Pac-10/Big Ten Rose Bowl, which this season would have matched Stanford and Wisconsin, the 2 most exciting teams in College Football not named Auburn or Oregon. Not that TCU and Wisconsin isn’t a good matchup, but considering TCU showed defensive vulnerability late in the season against San Diego State, the Badgers may run all over the Horned Frogs. 

Which matchup would you rather see? Vote on the poll on the right!

It wasn’t just the Rose Bowl that was affected; the TCU selection trickled down to give us unexciting matchups in the Fiesta Bowl (oklahoma vs UConn) and the Orange Bowl (Virginia Tech vs Stanford). Under the old provision we would have likely ended up with the following matchups: Rose Bowl – Stanford vs Wisconsin, Fiesta Bowl – oklahoma vs TCU, and Orange Bowl – Virginia Tech vs UConn, the Sugar Bowl and National Championship Game remaining the same. All of which would have been more evenly matched!

Oh well, all we can do now is sit back and enjoy the bowls. And to enjoy the Bowl Season even more, I invite you to join the Kanan Sports Bowl Pick ‘Em game. To join simply go to http://y.ahoo.it/F8ddHadi and sign up with your Yahoo account, no password is necessary.

Pro Football Predictions - Week 14

UFC 124 Predictions

-Kanan

Confession: Good for the Soul, Better for Eligibility

I don’t like the NCAA’s ruling Cam Newton eligible after finding that his father did try to get payment for Cam to go play at Mississippi State, I’m certainly not in the minority in this opinion.  The idea that Cam isn’t guilty because he didn’t know and wasn’t involved in his father’s scheming opens a dangerous precedent, and comparisons to the Reggie Bush situation are inevitable.

Maybe, just maybe, Newton deserves a lighter penalty than Bush for the simple reason that the Newtons collaborated with the investigation.  I don’t buy for an instant that Cam didn’t know what his father was doing, but for what it’s worth, he didn’t vehemently deny any wrongdoing the way Bush did.  Reinstating eligibility was the plea bargain for the confession.  Personally I just miss the days when rich white families adopted talented underprivileged kids and steered them to their university.

I think South Carolina is going to win the SEC Championship game, but I’m having trouble telling if it simply is what I wish will happen.

The news that the USA didn’t get awarded the 2022 World Cup surprised me more than it should have.  We’ve spent 16 years kinda, sorta, but not really caring about soccer and it really shouldn’t surprise us that soccer kinda, sorta, doesn’t really like us. 

Soccer’s popularity is slowly and steadily increasing in this country, and as demographics shift, who knows what could happen, but in the next 12 years I don’t see the sport gaining level of cultural relevance that puts it anywhere beyond 4^th best after football, basketball, and baseball.

Also, check out the stadiums that Qatar is building!

College Football Predictions – Week 14

Pro Football Predictions – Week 13

-Kanan

Understanding Ohio St President Gordon Gee

“If you think otherwise, then stop reading. You’re too naive to save.”

Can somebody please tell me how Dan Wetzel’s convoluted article about how Ohio State President Gordon Gee’s comments regarding Boise State and TCU not deserving to play for the National Championship ends?  I stopped reading right where he told me to stop, and not a moment too soon as his argument is about as confusing as he claims the BCS to be.

Not really, the man just assumes entirely too much.  Let’s forget about his assumption that he is right and if you disagree, well he just doesn’t want to hear from you, and look at what Mr. Gee said. 

Gordon Gee points out, from his experience having been a president at both a Big Ten and an SEC school, that those teams have to go through a gauntlet (slight exaggeration, but okay) and that every week they play very fine schools.  He further states his belief that if you don’t play a comparable schedule, then you don’t deserve a spot in the National Championship game.  He does make the very offensive mistake of calling Boise and TCU’s opponents Little Sisters of the Poor, which I just found out doesn’t even have a football team.

Dan Wetzel interprets this as: “Gee clearly has no idea what he is arguing about, or for, let alone how the BCS formula works, why it exists or how a playoff could actually operate.”  Bold stuff!  “Gee may think he’s arguing for the BCS, but he’s actually arguing against it.”  Really? Tell us more Captain Extrapolation!

See you can go from “I disagree” to “You’re stupid and you don’t know what you’re talking about,” but that’s a pretty shitty thing to do if you are over the age of 18.  Nowhere in Mr. Gee’s statements can we really gauge his grasp on the BCS or its formula. 

To me his statements are not much different than when Nick Saban said on National TV (minute 2:45 on) that, and I’m paraphrasing, it is not about the quality of team that Boise and TCU have, but consideration has to be given to the difficulty of what others have to go through to get to a 12-0 record.  Or as Dan Wetzel would put it: Nick Saban has no idea what he is arguing about, or for, let alone how the BCS formula works, why it exists or how a playoff could actually operate.

Wetzel actually gets to something that sort of resembles a point at around the 17^th paragraph when he says that the reason Gee is actually arguing against the BCS is because the system would, and could be about to, let a 12-0 WAC (or MWC) team play for its National Championship game, which is exactly what Gee is against.  BUT THEN WHAT IS THE BCS OUTRAGE ALL ABOUT?!

If the BCS system is capable of allowing teams like Boise or TCU to play for the National Championship then it is not systematically excluding any team.  The system is designed to make it difficult for them to get there, but that is a fair compensation for playing weaker schedules.  Yay, I got to my point in the 9^th paragraph!!!!  But I won’t ask you to stop reading, even if you disagree with me, because I got more to say.

The actual outrage should, of course, come from undefeated teams that are left out of the National Championship game.  This outrage, however, cannot come from any undefeated team.  Nick Saban is correct in saying that consideration should be given to teams whose path to 12-0 is inherently difficult (read: teams from AQ conferences and Notre Dame).  A playoff system is unfair in that it rewards teams for having weak schedules, not only by making it easier to go undefeated, but by keeping those players in better physical condition by the end of the season.  The only team that can be legitimately outraged is the 2004 Auburn Tigers.

Wetzel believes that money is the reason a playoff system hasn’t been implemented; he believes that wealthy bowl organizers want to continue to profit handsomely, even at the expense of the schools.  He’s right, but who is being naïve now?  Money just so happens to be the reason for EVERYTHING! 

Blaming something on the power brokers behind the scenes is just a very cheap way to gain support for your argument.  Hey, that Kanan guy is only writing this because he makes money if people click on ads on his blog!  Oh wait, so does Wetzel, only he makes more, so he’s the evil one!

Yes, bowl organizers are making a lot of money, and I will agree that requiring schools to purchase seats at face value is egregious, but the fact is that the bowl system has not always been the cash cow it now is.  Indeed College Football history is littered with failed bowls.  To think that a playoff system will be by its very nature a fair one where nobody profits more than anybody else, is, well, naïve.

College Football Predictions - Week 13

Pro Football Predictions - Week 12

-Kanan

Why a College Football Playoff is Unfair

Using a playoff system to crown the College Football National Championship would be just as unfair as critics of the current BCS system accuse it of being.  The cover story in last week's Sports Illustrated looked to expose the money trail leading to those so-called power brokers who are blocking the implementation of a playoff.  The article echoed the popular belief that the BCS system is unfair because it allows for the possibility of an undefeated team to be excluded from playing for the National Championship.  A proposed playoff system in which teams from all conferences, not just the major AQ ones, can compete for the National Championship rewards teams playing  the least challenging schedule at the expense of those facing a more competitive field.

Critics of the BCS, like the authors of the article, argue that the importance of regular season games in the current system should mean that every team's wins should be valued equally.  That means that in the scenario where Oregon, Auburn, Boise St., and TCU all go undefeated, not allowing all four teams to play for the National Championship is unfair.  Because football is a violent sport that takes a gruelling toll on the body of players, those that are given the most opportunities to rest and avoid contact will have an advantage over those who don't. 

During last week's game between Boise State and Idaho many of Boise's starters were no longer playing by the beginning of the 4th quarter, for a team like the Broncos this has been the rule not the exception.  Boise gains two very big, and very overlooked, advantages: they rest players and they provide valuable experience to back-up players.  Compare that to Auburn's situation: while the Tigers have the opportunity to rest players during a few non-conference games, they also play the bulk of their schedule against SEC opponents, widely accepted to be the toughest, most physical teams in College Football.  Is it fair that a fresh and rested, comparatively speaking, Boise State be given the opportunity to eliminate a bruised Auburn squad en route to the championship game?

Despite the immense talent inequalities found throughout College Football, it is reasonable to believe that the top 30 or so teams are capable of winning one game against a higher ranked opponent.  Given that parity it is unfair that teams can keep their players in peak physical condition throughout the season due to lack of competitiveness.

College Football Predictions - Week 12

Pro Football Predictions - Week 11

-Kanan