5-at-10:15: Fab 4 picks, Cubs the frontrunner, Star Wars everywhere, Rushmore of most famous people on the planet

We’re running a step behind today. That’s on us.

From the “Talks too much” studios, may the force be with you.

Fab 4 picks

OK, last week we dabbled in the FCS playoffs and felt really strong about Navy.

What happened? We hit the two dabbles and got dumped by the once-reliable Midshipmen.

Now, that’s entertainment in a nutshell.

OK, we closed a very productive regular season with a 57-39 mark against the spread. Put into context, if you spent 100 entertainment vouchers on each Fab 4 pick this year, you would have been 1,410 entertainment vouchers to the good on the season, and that includes the 10-percent entertainment surcharge that comes with bad selections.

Now, that’s entertainment.

Last year, we picked every bowl game. And since we are playing along in the free Bowling for Bowls of Bowl Game Success (Bowler optional) contest – click here for more details – where you can win stuff, we will pick all the games this year too.

Unlike last year, though, for entertainment purposes only, we will only try to hunt games that we believe to be entertaining. Last year we went 19-18 because trying to find entertainment in every scenario is simply impossible. You can handicap the Potato Bowl just like you would not expect entertainment to be found at an insurance seminar. (Yes, the transitive property of entertainment leads us to the conclusion that Potato Bowl = insurance seminar.)

So where does that leave us? Right where we want to be – hunting for entertainment today (and next Wednesday and then the Thursday after that to coincide with the Greeson Grab Bag picks in the 5 o’clock hour of Press Row).

We have a plethora of gambling guidelines, and we try to ride them through the regular and postseason. Trust talent. If a line is too good to be true, it normally is. If all appears even, go with the better quarterback. Trains – hugely popular public picks – almost always crash.

For those of you regular to these parts, you are likely familiar with those trends and policies.

The postseason offers two more: Which team wants to be there; which team is dealing with coaching upheaval.

The first deals with motivation, and for a lot of the bigger bowls, it’s not as big a factor because who doesn’t want to win the Rose Bowl for Pete’s sake. The second deals with the mental state of a football program, and some times it can work positively just as much as it can be a negative. For example, a beloved coach like Frank Beamer coaching his last game is worth bonus points, where as a limited staff like Georgia’s could be a disadvantage. (That said, never underestimate the power of the “Us-Against-the-World” rallying cry in today’s sports world. So there’s that.)

With that caveat, dare we say, as Peter Piper might suggest, let’s get to picking. (And these are from bowl games before next Wednesday, and as always, these picks are for entertainment purposes only.)

App State minus-7.5 over Ohio. We’d buy the half to prepare against the backdoor cover, but App State is a) better and as a young program in FBS will not feel snubbed by being in the Camiella Bowl. Side note: When you think flowery bowl tradition, yes, Rose is the granddaddy of them all, but then the collection of Camillia, Poinsettia and Cactus are all interchangeable, right?

Utah State minus-6.5 over Akron. The Aggies are better than the Zips in football. The Zips are better than the Aggies in terms of nickname originality. Here are two pertinent facts. Utah State senior quarterback Chuckie Keaton, who missed a chunk of the season with a knee injury will be playing his final game. Despite the fact that he’s been in college longer than Delta house fav John Blutarsky from Animal House, this will be a motivating factor for Keaton and his team. Plus, Akron only qualified for the postseason by beating Buffalo and Kent State to close the season. (Research alert: Kent State and Buffalo were a dreadful 1-7 in November, and that one win was Buffalo’s 18-17 win over Kent State. So there’s that.)

Arizona minus-10 over New Mexico. Couple of things here. Yes, Arizona has been erratic, especially down the stretch when they have lost four of their last five. But consider the following: Starting quarterback Anu Solomon has been cleared to play. That’s nice. All-American linebacker Scooby Wright – the team’s heartbeat – has been given a clean bill of health and will make his return after missing all but two games this season after injuring his knee in the season opener. Plus, remember that coaching drama calling card we mentioned? Well, Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez decided to return the Wildcats and that could be an emotional lift. (Psst: As always on numbers that are around 10, 7, and 3, buy the half to save the end game stress,)

Western Kentucky-South Florida over 67. Two of the more entertaining teams in the country. South Florida was 9-2-1 against the spread this year and Western Kentucky was 7-4-2 against the number. Big offenses with a lot of skilled-position talent. And beyond our entertainment, the offenses also entertained in the more traditional sense. WKU scored at least 35 against the 11 teams it played that were not in the SEC; USF averaged 44 points in its four-game winning streak to close the season. Now that’s entertaining.

Arkansas State plus-2 over Louisiana Tech. Arkansas State is sneaky good for the next level down. Take out the losses to power-five foes Missouri and USC, and the Red Wolves are 9-1, and scored less than 37 points in exactly one of those games (the 37-7 loss to Toldeo). Since Halloween, Arkansas State has scored 48, 40, 59, 52, and 55 points. Trick or treat, indeed.

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Baseball odds

It’s still hard to fathom that the Chicago Cubs are perceived to be the class of baseball.

So it goes.

And because we are running way long after the entertainment bonanza above, we’ll cut this one a little shorter

Here are the odds to win the 2016 World Series with the Cubs and the Giants, who have assembled a very nice – and expensive rotation – leading the way.

Still feels strange to think of the Cubs, no matter how talented that lineup (and from 1-through-6, it’s salty now that Jason Heyward is on board), as the actual favorite rather than just the fan favorite, you know?

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Star Wars opens

We are running a bit tardy this morning. Lots of stuff happening.

That said, we’d be remiss not to mention the opening of the seventh installment of the Star Wars series.

And in typical 5-at-10 fashion – and we’ll be back to comment on this later – we are curious about your Star Wars memories.

We also had a couple of mailbag questions on the topic (we picked one, but added a couple here) that we felt were too good not to address.

First, as far as the Rushmore of movie franchises, Star Wars has to be right there. Heck, Star Wars is so big it balance ESPN’s books. But feel free to weigh in on the Rushmore of movie franchises if you’d like.

Second, we were asked about the Rushmore of non-scary movie villains and where does Darth Vader rank. He’s pretty special, but then dude comes full circle in the overrated Return of the Jedi (really after the opening scenes with Jabba, and some cool cycle speeder stuff, we’re not a real big Return of the Jedi fan), so we’d certainly count Vader in the first two movies as a home run villain. Right there with the shark in the first Jaws and El Macho in Despicable Me II. (Hey sue us, the last couple of dozen movies we’ve seen have all been animated.

Star Wars came along at a time when we were young enough to be amazed by its scope and effects and everything that came with it.

It’s been a part of our adult life – and our 8-year-old is a big fan, too – and been part of America for almost four decades now.

Wow.

Thanks George Lucas. You created a true American classic.

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This and that

– Speaking of Vegas – and we are odds heavy (or is it heavily odd) here today – two of the biggest point spreads of the season are slated for this Sunday in the NFL as two of the best in Vegas’ eyes face the two worst teams in the league. Seattle is minus-14.5 over Cleveland and New England is minus-14 over Tennessee. We normally go the other way when NFL teams are getting double digits, but we wouldn’t feel comfortable with either underdog in those games.

– Maybe Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson will be extra motivated Sunday against Cleveland, after Browns coach Mike Pettine said he was not among the top four QBs in the league. Man this feels like faux-controversy. Pettine said Wilson is not among the Brady, Rodgers, Brees, Roethlisberger realm, but was right there in the next group. Even as well as Wilson is playing right now – he as 16 TDs, no picks and a near-perfect passer rating of 145.9 – we’re pretty sure Russell’s parents wouldn’t put him in the same circle as Brady, Rodgers and the boys.

– The Panthers are 13-0, and of the previous eight teams to start 13-0, six made it to the Super Bowl/title game.

– Man the Golden State Warriors rolled Phoenix 128-103 in a game that amazingly was not even that close. Golden State led 103-65 after three quarters, and Steph Curry (25 points) and Klay Thompson (43 points) each had a plus/minus of +37. That means in all the minutes when they were on the floor the Warriors outscored the Suns by 37 points. Amazing right? Yes it is, but now know this: Two other Warriors had better plus/minus numbers. Draymond Green, who had a triple double, was +39, and Andrew Bogut was +42 in 21 minutes without scoring a single point. Wow.

– Side note: The once-beaten Warriors host the Bucks, the team that topped them last Saturday, on Friday night. Hey we’re odds heavy today, so how many points would you need to feel good betting on . Bucks? At least 25, right?

– A great column from Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel on the Brady-Trump link we discussed yesterday.

– Man, Riverbend added Salt-n-Pepa to the list of talent. Salt-n-flippin’-Pepa.

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Today’s question

Remember the college football picks contest. Deadline is CoB Friday. Follow the above link. (Extra bonus points to Mark W. for his impressive spreadsheet submission. Well-played indeed.)

As for more, well, feel free to weigh in on any of the entertainment assistance/odds talk above.

For a Rushmore, today is Pope Francis’ 79th birthday. SAL-Loot.

In that honor, what’s the Rushmore of the most recognizable people on the planet in the here and now?

Thoughts? (And do we think Jomo cracks the top 10?)

P.S. Remember the mailbag.

P.P.S. Also, the Star Wars stuff.