Daily Archives: December 9, 2009

Three Lumps of Coal: The Worst Bowl Games

Matt’s Pick: GMAC Bowl. Central Michigan vs. Troy in Mobile, AL. Jan. 6 4:00pm PST

This game makes every year’s list of worst bowl games, due in large part to the timing. The GMAC Bowl is always the second to last bowl game, played the night before the BCS National Championship Game. This year’s installment features a pretty decent 11-2 Central Michigan team, who provided one of the most exciting games I watched this season when they beat Michigan State. They also have QB Dan LeFevour, who led the nation is completion percentage (71.1%) and was 20th in passing yards with 3,043. Troy, on the other hand, did go undefeated in Sun Belt Conference play, but failed to put up a fight against nonconference opponents, Florida, Bowling Green, and Arkansas.

Andre’s Pick: R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. Southern Mississippi vs. Middle Tennessee in New Orleans, LA. Dec. 20 5:30pm PST

I don’t think this game deserves ESPN’s attention, shouldn’t Versus or TBS be on this one??  10 bonus points if you can name the mascot for both teams.  Tick-tock… ok, times up: you might know SoMiss are the Golden Eagles, but MidTenn is the toughy, the Blue Raiders.  But even they might be better than the Silver and Black Raiders.  Ok low-blow.  If you do catch this snoozer on a Sunday afternoon, watch for the battle of two strengths as Damion Fletcher of the Golden Eagles, one of the most prolific and underrated RBs in the country, goes up against the very strong front 7 of the Blue Raiders D.

Tony’s Pick: Little Caesars Bowl. Ohio vs. Marshall in Detroit, MI. Dec. 26 10:00am PST

I hate Little Caesars Pizza, so it’s fitting I hate there bowl game as well. In fact I’d rather eat tofu than a Little Caesars medium cheese pizza, but that’s neither here nor there. When I wake up Saturday morning the day after Christmas I can honestly say the last thing I will do is tune into Marshall and Ohio. These are two mediocre mid-conference football teams with no real standout players of note either. In fact, Marshall’s coach Mark Snyder resigned at the end of the regular rather than have to coach his team in this bowl (well, I might have made that part up).  With two other quality games later in the day, pass on the Mini Caesars Bowl, and get some family time in…..you won’t be missing anything.




How to Even Out MLB’s Uneven Divisions

MLB's Divisions Make About As Much Sense As All This Japanese

Was just perusing Rob Neyer’s Chat transcript from Dec. 1, and someone posed this question….

Rob- Can you explain to me why MLB continues to have 4 AL West teams and 6 NL Central teams?

I’ve thought about this before, and the answer has always been simple in my mind. Move the Royals to the AL West, and switch the Brewers back to the AL in the Central division. Switching leagues is iffy, but the Brewers have spent the majority of their existence in the American League. As for Kansas City, the Chiefs play in the AFC West, and the Texas Rangers are stuck traveling to and from the Pacific Coast all season long. Now, every division has five teams. Here are the ones that would change….

NL Central: Chicago, Cincinnati, Houston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis

AL Central: Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Minnesota

AL West: Anaheim, Kansas City, Oakland, Seattle, Texas

If Bud doesn’t want to move his team to the AL, I’d happily welcome the Pirates into the AL West, but that makes far less sense. Anyway, if anyone can find any flaws in my realignment, please comment. If not, please forward to Mr. Selig. Thank you.