WHOOHOOO! West Virginia lost to Pittsburgh meaning the Buckeyes are IN!

The question is, who will they play? Looks like Missouri is going down to Oklahoma. According to the current BCS standings, it would be Georgia. But, the pollsters will determine this at the end of the day, I say the pollsters, in love with LSU, will vote them #2 and will play the Buckeyes in the MNC. We’ll see, more in the weekend sports update tomorrow.

GO BUCKS!

Last day of the regular season today, no Ohio State game, some interesting match-ups that directly affect the Bucks, some interesting in their own right. I thought I’d share my thoughts on who wins and why…Based on how my “pick ’em” season has gone, you might do well to ignore this – or better yet – pick the opposite!

Games that Matter

• Backyard Brawl – West Virginia and Pitt will play the 100th edition of this rivalry game today. WV are 24 point favorites according to Vegas. Who wins: West Virginia in a much closer than expected game, 31-24. Rivalries are much more often close affairs and upsets than blow outs. Virtually every talking head has WV winning 48-12 kinds of scores. WV isn’t *that* good, though Pitt might be *that* bad. Historically, the ‘Neers haven’t played well with everything on the line (see, USF game earlier this year.) I suspect the WV folks have been reading (and believing) their press, they’ll get the win, but it won’t be as easy as conventional wisdom dictates. Root for: Pitt (as a Pitt win means OSU gets into the championship game.) Result: Panthers eat ‘Neers, 13-9 after Pat White dislocates thumb.
• Big 12 Championship – Some leagues have championship games, some don’t. I personally don’t care for them though I know they make money for the leagues – I prefer the Pac 10 method where each team plays the other during the course of the season. Missouri will battle Oklahoma in a rematch of the game earlier this year that the Sooners won 42-31. Vegas has installed Oklahoma as 3 point favorites and conventional wisdom (ala the talking heads) indicate that Oklahoma wins in a shootout. I think the Sooners are going to have their hands full with a motivated and focused Tiger team – no doubt, they’ve read that no one (and I mean no one) gives them a chance to win the game. I think Missouri pulls out a close, unexpected win in to go the national championship game, call it 24-16. Root for: Oklahoma (same deal, a Sooner win sends OSU to the championship.) Result: Boomer Sooner declaws Tigers, 38-17.
• USC vs. UCLA – Simply the rivalry game between these two teams as the last game of the season. This one is easy, Trojans win, they go to the Rose Bowl as Pac 10 champs. Last year UCLA did the unthinkable and upset USC. Not going to happen this time, this has blowout written all over it, Trojans win big, 52-3. UCLA coach Karl Dorrell goes out with a thud and the Trojans go to the Rose Bowl to most likely play OSU. Root for: UCLA – general underdog rooting principle. Result: Trojans bruise Bruins, 24-7. It wasn’t as close as the scoreboard indicated.
• Washington vs. Hawaii – If the Warriors win, they’re in the big show – headed to a BCS bowl. Not so fast my friend as Lee Corso might say. Hawaii is 11-0, virtually unbeatable at home, a scoring machine. Washington is 4-7, inconsistent, coming off an emotional loss to rival Washington State in the Apple Cup last week. Hawaii wins and wins big, right? Wrong. Upset special, the Huskies get it done in Honolulu because the UW defensive line will spend more time in the Warrior backfield than Colt Brennan. Since the Warrior defense is suspect, and the Huskie offense is starting to click, look out! 45-35 Washington. Root for: Hawaii (to crash the big-boy party.) Result: The Warriors come from behind to nip the Huskies, 35-28.

Games that don’t matter

• SEC Championship Game – Tennessee vs. LSU. LSU is the favorite, Miles last game, Pellini’s last game. Yawn. Who cares? Tennessee pulls out the upset in 7OTs 33-30 after finishing regulation all tied up at 3-3. Root for: Tennessee (because I’d love to hear the SEC apologists explain that Florida, LSU, and Tennessee are the best 3 win teams in the nation and in a fair system would still have a chance to play for the championship. Meanwhile, Georgia, a team that didn’t win its division ascends to play Ohio State in the national championship game after WV and Missouri lose – I can dream, right?) Result: Tigers tame the Vols, 21-14 (does this mean that the ignorant pollsters will vote LSU #1 again? After all, they must be the best 2 loss team in the history of college football.)
• Army vs. Navy – A rivalry with deep tradition and history, the teams haven’t been great for decades, but this game is still special. Everyone expects a Navy win, but I’m pulling for Army this year because they’ve had a rough run of it lately. With Navy’s coach leaving, the Cadets will pull off the upset. Result: Navy sinks Army, 38-3.
• ACC Championship Game – Virginia Tech vs. Boston College, the rematch. VT had the Eagles beaten, down 10-0 with 2 minutes left earlier in the season. BC scores two touchdowns in the last 2 minutes to win 14-10. Don’t look for a repeat, the Hokies will step on BC’s neck and not let up this time. 38-21 Virginia Tech. Result: Tech grounds Eagles, 30-16.

Enjoy the games, they should be fun!

Today, Evel Knievel died at age 69. He was the inspiration for many acts of derring do growing up in Ohio. I remember riding my Huffy Thunder Road bike off ramps, over gullies, and through hay bales resulting in many bumps and bruises as my friends and I attempted to recreate his stunts in the Arrowhead development in Xenia. Evel was a character and his independent streak and showmanship will be missed.

Generally speaking, I’m a live and let live kind of person. You believe what you want and I’ll believe what I want, we can engage in a civil discussion about it if you’d like, but that’s your choice. Here’s a warning, if you’re a religious person and you’re easily offended, don’t read this entry. Stop. Do not pass Go. Here’s something more soothing to read.

OK, you’re still reading. Then I take that as an invitation to depart from my live and let live stance to say that I’m coming to believe strongly that organized religion is one of the most evil influences at work in our society today; even factoring in all the good works that do come from religious individuals around care for the elderly, feeding the hungry, etc.

What is prompting this? I read two articles today that set my blood boiling (as just the latest examples TODAY of religion’s negative influence on society.) Item #1: A 14-year old boy refuses medical treatment for leukemia on the basis of religious objections to medical intervention. He died today. There is no reason for a person to refuse treatment on a religious basis – it’s tantamount to saying “Santa will leave me coal in my stocking if I was bad this year.” If this child didn’t want the treatment and preferred to die due to some rational reason (bad prognosis, substantially decreased quality of life post-treatment,) it would still be difficult to take, but it would at least be understandable. That people are making life and death decisions on pure bunk is outrageous and criminal.

Item #2: The Pope says atheism is responsible for “greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice.” Last time I checked, there wasn’t an atheist cult demanding 10% of people’s income, threatening believers with eternal damnation for non-compliance with their interpretation of a contradictory set of rules set down by a compiled work of fiction, conscripting uneducated children to blow themselves and others up to gain entry to paradise, or ritually sexually abusing children due to their position of trust and power in the cult. I say this to you Pope Benedict-Arnold, “let he without sin cast the first stone.”

Just one day, Today, there are two stories demonstrating the evil and hypocrisy of religion. Tomorrow will bring more. Is it any wonder that thinking people, people who are responsible for their own actions, people who can tell the difference between good/evil, right/wrong, true/false are leaving organized religion in droves? There are spiritual aspects to life, but they don’t have to be, and really shouldn’t be regulated by these entities forcing Dennis Lindberg to make Custer decisions around his own life. It’s ludicrous.

I know a number of very decent, kind hearted, intelligent people who act responsibly though they participate in religion. Independently, I like and respect these people. I strongly suspect that these same people would be decent, kind hearted, generous, and responsible even in the absence of religion – though I don’t know if they know that.

In the aggregate, religion has got to go and go fast. It’s a cancer eating away at the core of our society cloaked in the word of “god.” It might be time for a holy war, the war to diminish the religious impact on society. To start, since Churches are, at heart, businesses, their tax deduction should be repealed immediately. I’m going to write my representatives about that… My tolerance for living in a society where hypocrisy is ingrained in society through religious cults is at an end.

I wish I had written this material on why I’m angry about religion, but thankfully, Greta Christina already wrote it and I can just link to it. It does a much more thorough and articulate job of communicating the outrage that is collecting around religion and “god.”

Tomorrow is the last week of regular college football action, this season has gone by in a flash. Of all the games tomorrow, two stand out with respect to the national championship picture, Missouri-Oklahoma (Big 12 Championship) and West Virginia-Pittsburgh (100th edition of the Backyard Brawl). The scenario is pretty simple, if both Missouri and West Virginia win, they will play for the national championship in January. If one of the teams lose, Ohio State will take their place in that game. If both teams lose, Ohio State and Georgia would likely play for the championship.

As much as I’d like to see Ohio State in the championship game (who doesn’t want to see their team play for all the marbles?) I can’t muster any righteous indignation to make a case that Ohio State deserves to be in the game more so than Missouri or West Virginia, if they win their games this weekend. Regardless of your position on the present system, everyone can agree that the ingredients to play in the championship game are well known: play an adult schedule (Hawaii 2007 and Auburn 2004), don’t lose late (Ohio State 2007 and Kansas 2007), and don’t lose more than one game (LSU 2007 and USC 2007).

I think it all comes down to expectation and perception at the end of the day. If you had come from the future and said to me “Ohio State will be 11-1, having lost one game by 7 points, and the team is headed to the Rose Bowl and still has a chance of making it to the championship game” in mid-August, I would have been overjoyed. Read my season preview for Ohio State if you don’t believe me. Want to know disappointment? What about USC and LSU? These teams were “mortal locks” to play for the championship in August (you can tell because the talking heads continue to make excuses for each team and continue with the perspective these teams would destroy any opponent they played at present – uh, not so much.)

So where does this leave us? Ohio State’s most likely destination is the Rose Bowl (gang, I see both Missouri and West Virginia taking care of business this weekend.) What in the world is wrong with that? USC is the most likely opponent, that will be a great game to see. In this most unusual of college football seasons, I take my hat off to the over-achieving Buckeyes (and Mountaineers, Tigers, and Rainbows.) However the bowls shake out, it should be interesting to see the results. And particularly, the results on Conference Strength.