We are eight days from Christmas. Eight. Rushmore of eights would be Willie Stargell, Troy Aikman, Figure 8 and Crazy 8's, right?
We have a lot of questions today and need some help. And since the comment section right now is as easy to understand as a monkey having a conversation with a fungi, we are happy to take emails at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or your responses on Twitter at @jgreesontfp.
From the "Talks too much" studios remember the mailbag and the football contest (more on that below).
Asking for help
OK, we talked about this on Press Row on Tuesday and we'll offer it up here again.
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland tees off at the 16th hole during the first day of The DP World Tour Championship, held at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014. (AP Photo/Stephen Hindley) We are leaning to Rory McIlroy and Lauren Hill as the athletes of the year, and thanks to everyone who played along Tuesday on ESPN 105.1 FM.
We now are trying to fine tune our list of biggest sports stories of the year and what your input.
What was the biggest sports story of the year?
Go.
———
NBA interest
OK, we admit it, the NBA season is difficult to get motivated for before Christmas. Some — like OG — would say the "Neverending Basketball Association" never deserves attention.
Well, we checked in on the Golden State-Memphis and, as we debut a Wednesday morning NBA check-in that hopefully will be a weekly thing, Downtown Patrick Brown's Grizz's monster win that snapped Golden State's 16-game winning streak leads our Big 3.
1) The Grizz are legit. Five players in double figures. A bench that paced the win with a 20-0 charge. Physically tough and extremely quick at the point, the Grizz are 20-4 and 12-1 at the Grindhouse. That's pretty sharp.
United States basketball player Kevin Durant arrives to watch a women's beach volleyball match between USA and Austria.3) Welcome back to the conversation OKC, which thumped Sacramento for its seventh consecutive win. With Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook healthy, the duo has the Thunder rolling (Hi, Garth Brooks) and again among the funnest show on the floor. Westbrook is averaging 25.8 points per game in less than 30 minutes a night in his nine games back, and Durant became the second-youngest player to get 15,000 career points. The youngest one is some cat named LeBron.
———
College bowl contest
We have almost 30 entries and we are still taking them until the close of BID-ness Friday for the fifth annual "Bowling for Bowls of Bowl Game Success while wearing a Bowler" (Hat optional). The prize pot is growing, too. Right now we have some drinks, some tickets, a Dale Jr. autographed Best of Preps program, Best of Preps banquet tickets, a Chili's gift card, a TFP umbrella and any other items we can Fred Sanford. We have received a few dozen entries over the weekend, but we are looking for more. Here are the details:
Here are the levels and let us know if you have any questions.
The one-point level (pick two)
New Orleans Bowl — Nevada vs. Louisiana-Lafayette (Even)
New Mexico Bowl — Texas El Paso vs. Utah State (-11)
Las Vegas Bowl — Utah vs. Colorado State (+4)
Idaho Potato Bowl — Western Michigan vs. Air Force (+3)
Camellia Bowl — South Alabama vs. Bowling Green (-2)
GoDaddy Bowl — Toledo vs. Arkansas State (+1)
Boca Raton Bowl — Northern Illinois vs. Marshall (-11)
Poinsettia Bowl — Navy vs. San Diego State (E)
Two point level (pick two)
Bahamas Bowl — Central Michigan vs. W. Kentucky (-2)
Hawaii Bowl — Fresno State vs. Rice (+2)
Heart of Dallas Bowl — Illinois vs. Louisiana Tech (-4)
GoDaddy Bowl — Toledo vs. Arkansas State (+1)
Miami Beach Bowl — BYU vs. Memphis (+2)
Quick Lane Bowl — Rutgers vs. North Carolina (-4)
St. Petersburg Bowl — North Carolina State vs. UCF (-3)
Three-point level (pick two)
Military Bowl — Virginia Tech vs. Cincinnati (-3.5)
Pinstripe Bowl — Penn State vs. Boston College (-2.5)
Holiday Bowl — Nebraska vs. Southern Cal (-5)
Foster Farms Bowl — Maryland vs. Stanford (-13)
Armed Forces Bowl — Pittsburgh vs. Houston (+2)
Four-point level (pick two)
Sun Bowl — Duke vs. Arizona State (-9)
Independence Bowl — Miami vs. South Carolina (Even)
Liberty Bowl — West Virginia vs. Texas A&M (+4)
Texas Bowl — Texas vs. Arkansas (-5)
Russell Athletic Bowl — Clemson vs. Oklahoma (Even)
Five-point level (pick two)
Music City Bowl — Notre Dame vs. LSU (-7.5)
Belk Bowl — Louisville vs. Georgia (-7)
TaxSlayer Bowl — Iowa vs. Tennessee (-3)
Birmingham Bowl — East Carolina vs. Florida (-7)
Citrus Bowl — Minnesota vs. Missouri (-6.5)
Six-point level (pick two)
Chick-Fil-A Bowl — Mississippi vs. TCU (-3)
Fiesta Bowl — Boise State vs. Arizona (-4)
Orange Bowl — Georgia Tech vs. Mississippi State (-7)
Outback Bowl — Wisconsin vs. Auburn (-6.5)
Cotton Bowl — Michigan State vs. Baylor (-3)
Seven-point level (pick two — yes, that means you have to pick each of them)
Rose Bowl — Florida State vs. Oregon (-8.5)
Sugar Bowl — Ohio State vs. Alabama (-9)
Whatcha' got?
This and that
— To finalize a number we threw out there on Tuesday, here are the final football attendance for the Mocs from UTC SID ace Jay Blackman:
Six games (includes playoffs) with total attendance of 60,789; 10,146 per game, which was No. 23 nationally and No. 1 in the SoCon (Mercer was second at 10,000). There were 25 teams in the FCS averaged 10,000+ and Montana was the only one over 20,000 (23,777). Ten teams averaged 15,000+. Of the teams in the Final 8 in the FCS Playoffs, only North Dakota State (No. 3 – 18,369), Chattanooga (No. 23 – 10,147) and Sam Houston State (No. 24 – 10,004) were in the top 25 in attendance.
— Nice win for the UTC Mocs basketball team Tuesday. We are not a coach — well other than the 6-year-old coach-pitch Bulls baseball team... War Bulls — but we do believe that shooting 63 percent, as the Mocs did Tuesday, more times than not leads to very good things.— From the "There's an equation for that" here's a chart of which college football coaches failed the most to meet expectations before being asked to leave. Interesting stuff. And yes, they can create and metric for just about anything these days. War Bill James.
— Of a similar ilk that you just can't make this stuff up, here is the single best moment in C-Span history. (Granted there is not a lot of competition for the best moment in C-Span history, but still.) Regulars around these parts know how we hate the fact there is no discourse in government and believe that is the root of the problem that has become a toxic situation in Washington. Well, here's C-Span meet Government Circus meet Dr. Phil. Apparently brothers Brad and Dallas Woodhouse are polar political opposites and get paid to argue about such matters in public scenarios (this actually leads to strengthen our belief about the arguing for arguing's sake) and were doing their thing on Obamacare on C-Span the other day. Well, in comes a call from Raleigh, N.C., and it's Brad and Dallas's momma and she tells them to shut their pie holes and quit all this fighting and complaining. She has had enough of it. Awesome in its awesomeness. And we all know if momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.
— To help the public to drive safer in icy conditions, the state of South Dakota put a public service announcement tell drivers not to make quick turns of the wheel or sudden directional changes to avoid losing control. This seems completely fine and a noble effort. Well…. they called the campaign "Don't Jerk and Drive" and well, they've had to pull the campaign for obvious reasons and the subsequent giggling reveals that yes, no matter the age, every guy you know — including the 5-at-10 — will laugh at sophomoric jokes.
————
FILE - This undated image from files, provided by Fox Broadcasting from "The Simpsons," shows the popular cartoon family posing in front of their home, from left, Lisa , Marge , Maggie, Homer and Bart Simpson. University students have been studying Homer's "The Odyssey" for centuries. More recently, Homer Simpson's "Odyssey," and a quarter-century of episodes from the animated sitcom have been undergoing similar scrutiny at several college campuses around the country. (AP Photo/Fox Broacasting Co., File) 1998 FOX BROADCASTING We have a litany of them.
We have asked for your help on the sports story of the year. We are asking for mailbag questions and football contest entries.
But if you need a more traditional 5-at-10 question, well, the Simpsons turn 25 today. What's our Rushmore of Simpson characters not named Simpson? Go.