Broncos Pro Bowlers 2012

I've been critical over the years of All-Star events. They have strived for meaning and relevance in the sports world, some which has come due to the overindulgences of some commissioners. They are entertainment, much the same way a reality show is presented as real.

Elvis Dumervil, Champ Bailey and Von Miller were selected to the 2012 Pro Bowl as the sole Broncos nominees. But other than that there is little to talk about. These players do represent the long tenured pro, the resurgence of an old face and the newest thing in a commonly over-proclaimed 'Orange Crush' defense.

Yet, if we continue to dive into these selections we see a disturbing trend. People outside of Denver, no matter how much they can't help but talk about it on ESPN, still don't have faith in Tim Tebow and the Broncos.

Tebow will get to Honolulu, but only because he will fill in as an alternate. So outside of the Mile High City, people believe that the defense is responsible for the resurgence of the Broncos. And while this is partly true, the defense is only one of several key components to their success. But, as much as the people who sit watching the Broncos think it to be true, there is some discrepancy about who is causing the up coming team that might represent the AFC West.

Like 'Aloha' these choices, votes by fans have multiple meanings that could show people's true feelings about the Broncos.

College bowls aren't selfish

People who think there are too many bowl games, that the BCS is rigged, that college football deserves better than the teams, conferences and institutions that surround them are selfish. These people, wherever they find themselves are self-centered.

These people want the self satisfaction of an enjoyable, resolved 10 or so games that will crown a sole team the best in the nation.

Without the first two rounds of the NCAA college basketball tournament it would just be called “March”, because there is no real madness from the Sweet-16 on in. The Super Bowl should lack the prescribed title if they pitted the two best regular season teams together in a single game in mid-February.

These games matter, not to the fans that remain ignorant about what IUPUI means as an acronym or as a university, but to the players. For most of these players this is an experience they will tell their grandkids about.

These student-athletes, as some uncommonly refer to themselves as, will not cherish this moment. They will enjoy the ride and take for granted what it truly means. But there will be more than a few that take this in and see that they are no bigger than the game but it is a privilege to be taking part in it. These are the players that need 

these ‘irrelevant games’.

So while rude fans can sit at home flipping the channel past the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl or the Beef’o’Brady Bowl St. Petersburg this is where the real magic of the bowl season happens. The players earned this so relish it all fellas.

College Bowl Predictions; 2011-2012

This is starting to feel a lot like a tradition. For the third straight year I will be laying down the law, writing the prescribed amount and, hopefully, correctly picking the winners in each of the 35 college bowl games that get underway today. 

1. Wyoming over Temple. The Pokes can’t let their basketball team outshine them, thus they’ll take down the Owls.

2. Utah State beats Ohio. The Idaho Potato Bowl mashes two of the better, traditionally, lower tiered conference teams together. But “I Believe that… Utah State will win.”

3. San Diego State will beat LA-Lafayette. I watched the movie, ‘Anchorman’ yesterday. So that’s got to be a sign, right?

4. Marshall over Florida International. I’m taking a shot on the Thundering Herd. I learned two years ago that the team that is closest to their home usually does worse. So seeing the Beef’o’Brady St. Petersburg Bowl is next door to FIU then I’m going with Marshall.

5. TCU easy win over Louisiana Tech. Simple as that.

6. Boise State over Arizona State. Kellen Moore deserved to be a Heisman Finalist, Chris Peterson deserves a ton of respect as a coach, and the Broncos will easily cover the nearly two touchdown spread to beat the Sun Devils. ASU has been reeling the last half of the season with their last win coming against Colorado in October.

7. Southern Mississippi beats Nevada. The Golden Eagles unseated Houston in the Conference USA title game, we can just hope the beautiful Hawaii scenery doesn’t distract them.

8. Missouri over North Carolina. Gary Pinkel and the Tigers find a way to get it done, although this game will remain tight throughout.

9. Purdue beats Western Michigan.

10. Louisville beats North Carolina State. These last two have been educated guesses.

11. Air Force over Toledo. You just don’t bet against the Armed Forces in a bowl game, you just don’t do it. These kids deserve a spot in a bowl game every year, even if their record doesn’t reflect it, and they’ll earn it.

12. Texas gets past California. Colt McCoy won his first ever bowl game appearance as a freshman in 2006 in the Alamo Bowl, and Case McCoy will do the same in his first bowl game too. The Longhorns have been hit or miss this year, but they beat the Golden Bears in the Holiday Bowl.

13. Florida beats Notre Dame. This game may be a tossup, but when in doubt choose speed at the college level.

14. Baylor beats Washington. This could be one of the better bowl games out there. Griffin is surging coming over the school’s first ever Heisman so a lot of eyes will be on him. But Washington is sneaky good, 4 of their 5 losses have come to Nebraska, Stanford, Oregon and USC. Watch out for the Huskies who will happily spoil the Bears bowl season.

15. Tulsa beats BYU. I do not like the fact that the Cougars are an independent, and they had their choice of scheduling this year. In three good matchups BYU found itself on the losing end. Tulsa will take it.

16. Rutgers beats Iowa State. The Cyclones played their best game of the year to beat Oklahoma State. But they won’t be able to rekindle the those old feelings against the Scarlet Knights.

17. Mississippi State over Wake Forest. SEC v ACC, then this sounds like a sure-fire pick.

18. Iowa beats Oklahoma. If Ryan Broyles were in the game then this would be an easy pick. But the Sooners losing to Iowa will just prove, once more, how crucial Broyles is to this team.

19. Texas A&M rolls past Northwester. The Wildcats haven’t won a bowl game since 1948 and I think the jump to the SEC for the Aggies will help carry them. The drought will thus continue for Northwestern.

20. Georgia Tech beats Utah. The option offense will be too much to handle, although the Utes front-seven is really good.

21. Vanderbilt beats Cincinnati. To go against what I just practically said, this will be only the second bowl since 1982 for the Commodores and they get it done. They won their final game to get eligibility and James Franklin will carry them to the top.

22. Illinois beats UCLA. Upheaval, and a losing record does not bode well for the Bruins. The Fighting Illini cruise past UCLA.

23. Auburn over Virginia. War Eagle is in transition mode, only returning 6 starters from the National Championship a year ago. It should be seen as a feat rather than a failure when Gene Chizik wins a second straight bowl game.

24. Houston beats Penn State. It is really hard to figure out this game. The Nittany Lions will be surrounded by a media circus which could make it hard to focus on football or give them a much needed kick in the rear to push them to victory. Case Keenum will win his final game amid a trying game for both sides.

25. Michigan State beats Georgia. Although the Bulldogs looked good against LSU the Big 10 is gaining in stature. The Spartans lost in the inaugural championship game and have something to prove this game. Kirk Cousins solidifies his case to be drafted into the NFL.

26. Nebraska over South Carolina. For the first time in a long time the Gamecocks are definitely the second-best team in the great state of South Carolina. The ol’ ball coach may try trickery but Nebraska wins easily.

27. Ohio State beats Florida. The new Florida Gators versus the old Florida Gators. The Bowl Selection Committee probably gets a chuckle out of pitting these two teams against each other. Urban Meyer will take his talents to Columbus next year and this game is likely to be a dogfight down to the wire.

28. Oregon beats Wisconsin. The Ducks, just ahead of the Trojans, were the most impressive team I saw in person this year. They were classy, they clicked and they did nothing to embarrass the Buffs except play their game the right way and win big. Chip Kelly has something in Eugene that is truly special.

29. Oklahoma State beats Stanford. The Cowboys did not deserve to be in the BCS National Title Game, as echoed by Mike Gundy. But once the ‘Pokes’ win, and a possible LSU loss, the debate about the best team in America continues on. (BCS Gods will be smiling.)

30. Michigan beats Virginia Tech. In a game that should be taking place on Christmas Eve rather than January 3^rd the Wolverines will win. VT looked bad against Clemson, and Denard Robinson steals the show.

31. Clemson cruises past West Virginia. Dabo Sweeney does everything right for one more game in Miami. How can the Tigers not win at a place called the ‘Orange Bowl’?

32. Kansas State beats Arkansas. Bill Snyder is one of the best coaches ever in college football.

33. Pittsburgh over SMU. June Jones was reported to be leaving, then he wasn’t, then, well who knows. A solid program may be able to handle that kind of strife but I don’t think SMU will have enough.

34. Arkansas State beats Northern Illinois. Why is this bowl game played on this date? I almost just left it off my ballot I’m so disturbed by it.

35. LSU will beat Alabama for the second time this year for the BCS National Championship. ‘Bama had their chance; in Tuscaloosa, missing four field goals and one of the best interceptions of the season on the goal line. They had their chance and now the steamroller that is LSU and Les Miles will easily take it. ‘The Honey-Badger don’t care’, and LSU goes undefeated.

We’ll how beat up these predictions get over the course of the bowl season.

Griffin for Heisman

I promise I wrote this last night and forgot to post it this morning. 

[It’s been said that “Good guys finish last”, but not this time. 

Robert Griffin III is a dual threat quarterback, but to describe him as such would leave out a key dynamic to who this Baylor Bears quarterback truly is. He’s a triple threat quarterback. 

Defensive coordinators aren’t the only ones that can’t slow this 6 foot-2 inch standout athletic quarterback down. He is involved in numerous entities outside of school that benefit the community. Griffin has been involved with Special Olympics, Santa's Workshop and Food for Families.

And now he’s up for the Heisman Trophy, and nomination by himself in a pre-acceptance speech in a post-game interview following Baylor’s win against Texas Saturday night.

Born in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, Griffin may be the most versatile football player in the country. He is the fastest man on the field nearly every snap, seeing as he was a stand out in the 110 meter hurdles. He could be an Olympian, instead he is gunning for the most prestigious award in the land the only way he knows how.

The more I read about Griffin the more I think he deserves the Heisman.  Vote cast.]

Hmm... well there you have it. 

Oregon v LSU: Part Deaux

The BCS standings are more disputed than the appetizer selection at Outback steakhouse on a redneck Thanksgiving.

But if everything continues to go in this direction that is so inevitably appears to be then the BCS is in good shape. Louisiana State and Oklahoma State are on the path to meet at the Superdome in New Orleans. They, and Houston which could win 20 games this year and not go to the Championship Game, are the only undefeated teams in the nation. But what if it doesn’t?

Oklahoma State, assuming that they win out to go undefeated, deserves a spot in the National Title game on January 9^th. Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon are as good a combination as we’ve seen in college football.

What if, by most sort of fluke, the Cowboys trip up over the course of the last two weeks? (They are sort of lucky, or unlucky depending on how you look at it, due to the conference realignment. There is no Big XII Championship game because the league does not field enough teams.)

Who is going to go play LSU? It will be a rematch, for whom a second chance is given would be the sole factor now.

Alabama or Oregon? Houndstooth apples or third-alternate oranges?

You probably couldn’t go wrong with either, but Oregon (in my respectfully omnipotent opinion) should get their number called.

The Ducks are the best coached team in the nation, hands down. Their class is only equivalent to their skill and only slightly behind their unbridled speed. The Ducks did lose to LSU 40-27 at Cowboy Stadium on the opening weekend of the college football season, but they have come a long way ever since.

They “made Stanford look like a JV team,” said respected analyst Kirk Herbstreit. And the Tide had their shot, midseason form in the game of the century, at home, and they couldn’t pull it off.

Oregon is arguably the best and deepest team in the nation. Chip Kelly’s team is ready to go down to Louisiana and take on what can only be assumed to be a pro-Tiger crowd. It will be Oregon versus LSU; Part Deaux.

Classic ‘Carrier Classic’

America’s pastime is baseball on a chilly October night. It’s traditional and elegant; it’s Joe Buck and the St Louis Cardinals. But America’s present-time is most definitely college basketball. It’s innovative and eloquent; it’s Gus Johnson and the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Where else would you expect the most influential man in the free world, President Barack Obama, watching the biggest game on the opening weekend of college basketball? As only Andy Samberg can put it; on a boat.

The first-ever, ironically named ‘Carrier Classic’ could not have been better.

It pitted two of the most successful programs, Michigan State and North Carolina, led by two of the best coaches in the game, Tom Izzo and Roy Williams, on the flight deck of the ship that accomplished the most successful mission in the US’s fight against terrorism.

The USS Carl Vinson was the ship that took Osama Bin Laden’s body out to sea. It showed genuine creativity and a good-hearted spirit. The 4.5 acre top of the flight deck hosted just 7,500 fans, most of who continue to serve this country. The referees of the game all had a military background. And the players were wearing camouflage-like jersey to smooth out the icing on the top.

The game, although not very close on the scoreboard, but like every other college game it kept you hooked until the very last buzzer. It honored some of the most distinguished and unselfish people the only way they knew how; with a game and what a beautiful game it is.

Collin Klein is a Heisman sleeper

The kid from little Loveland, Colorado is getting no love.

Junior Collin Klein in undoubtedly the most unstoppable force at Kansas State. He’s leading the most surprising team in the nation to one of the most prolific seasons in school history. There are 5 or 6 players that are, in number of popular votes, ahead of the Wildcat quarterback.

Klein goes to school in the Little Apple (Manhattan, Kansas) but he has at least earned a trip to the Big Apple.

He has 34 total touchdowns through just 10 games. And he’s done it in one of the best, most physical conferences (Big XII) in America. Klein has, on average rushed for 100 yards and 3 touchdowns per game. He leads the nation in rushing touchdowns, and that includes all the running backs. He’s also rushed for more than every quarterback than one (Chandler Harnish from NIU) and he’s 150 yards ahead of Denard Robinson.

Not to mention his even less notarized passing skills. Klein has thrown for 10 touchdowns, or as many as AJ McCarron (Alabama quarterback) and John McEntee (UCONN quarterback and trivial-gun-slinger extraordinaire).

Klein has led his team, in his first year as a starter, to an 8-2 record. And more than a friendly pat on the back he should be in the conversation for the Heisman Trophy.

Sportsmag Packages 11/11/11

Sportsmag Packages.

Jon Embree's team is young but on Saturday it will be all about the seniors. Twenty-eight senior will graduate after this season but they have left their legacy here in Boulder. Embree asked the underclassmen to write letters to the seniors, and how they turned out... you'll just have to watch and see.

The Pac-12 is the 'Conference of Champions' and the first two ever champions to be crowned in the new conference were both from Boulder. The men's and woman's cross country squads swept the field in Tempe and are excited for the opportunity to take this momentum with them into the NCAA Nationals.

Amy Barczuk was invited to play at the U-23 National Soccer Camp. The junior is an up and coming star for the Buffs with the potential to play for the stars and stripes in the future. But her journey has come with hard work and a lot of family support.

A Streak of 3-D

“There was no interference from that…. Um…. Yay-hoo,” said the referee following an incomplete pass by Tyler Hansen on third down.

While all the fans at the game were disappointed, the popular voters at home were thankful even noticeable grateful that he still had his clothes on. What could have been a disaster in the second-EVER 3-D broadcast turned out to be nothing more than a meaningless prank.

The streaker, if we true fans can even call him that came onto Folsom Field could have single handedly (I refrain, too easy of a joke) made ESPN question its production value. And how could a little thing, a small infraction like that, have such big implications for the largest network in the sports arena?

All kidding aside, 3-D television doesn’t seem to be the next new thing. It won’t sizzle, but it won’t take off either.

Fans at home, and sometimes people even at the stadium get caught doing it, watch the two-dimensional version of the contest to their bemusement. There is no reason to think that people will want to bring this into their home; it may be an interesting improvement of technology but only a step forward to something more dramatic.

The ‘Wall-E’ shaped cameras may start to replace fingerprint covered binoculars. People will come back, they can’t stay away. HD, 3-D or Heavy-D (R.I.P. and he will be missed), by Dwight’s dimension definition, they paved the way and yet there is more to come.