SEC items of interest
Alabama-LSU. Go time. In what has become the most impactful game, year-in, year-out in the SEC picture – and even in the national scope – over the last decade, the Tide and Tigers get back together Saturday night in Bator Rouge. No matchup has more pro-level talent than this one. No matchup has the yearly angst-ridden subplot of Saban going against his former team. No matchup routine pits top-10 teams. This year is no different, other than LSU being in the teens in the poll rather than the single digits. Alabama is the best team in the country; LSU may be among the hottest. This one rarely disappoints.
Florida heads to Fayetteville. Arkansas quarterback Anthony Allen has been upgraded to probable for Saturday night’s date with the Gators. Here’s the deal: Florida is very good defensively; Arkansas, other than the aberration that was its trip to Auburn two weeks ago, has been balanced and diverse on offense. Which of those strengths plays out will determine this one. This game is one of a few single-digit road favorites in the league, along with Georgia (minus-2.5 at Kentucky), Alabama (giving 7.5 at LSU).
Can Texas A&M handle the spotlight? The Aggies were the surprise story of the first college football playoff rankings, making an appearance in the top four at No. 4, ahead of unbeaten Washington. So how will A&M play with that weight on the road against a Mississippi State bunch that absolutely nothing to lose? We’ll see, and here’s betting in a season to forget, MSU coach Dan Mullen may have a trick or three waiting for the Aggies.
Tennessee rebound. There is no better week for the Vols to have a money game than this Saturday. It’s a perfect mid-six-figure get-well present for a program that is coming off its worst performance in Butch Jones’ three-plus years in Knoxville and in quarterback Josh Hobbs xx starts. It’s a runaway date for a team besieged by injuries and defections to the point that some guy named Carlin Fils-Aime is going to get meaningful carries. And amid all the ‘chemistry’ chatter and possible concussion discussion after Jalen Hurd left the program earlier this week, it’s the perfect time to welcome in the two-word foe that is Tennessee Tech but can be pronounced ‘confidence boost.’ And lets be clear these Vols need a big confidence boost heading into the final three SEC games of the regular season.
Georgia junior Isaiah McKenzie leads the Bulldogs in receiving with 30 catches for 415 yards, and he also has rushed 15 times for a 4.9-yard average.Fab 4 picks
OK, what have we learned. Not as much this year as last year.
There has not been a ‘Vandy under’ this season that has delivered with the same consistency. Or so it seems. Actually, there has been several teams that we have ignored that we should have been trusting since September. Here are a couple of them:
Did you know that Colorado is 8-0 against the number this season? Yes, Colorado, and no this is not 1990. The Buffs are the combination better than anyone knows and getting great value. Did you know Auburn is 7-1 against the spread this season? It seems hard to believe, but the 6-2 Tigers’ only loss in the view of Vegas was against Texas A&M.
How about this, in the topsy-turvy world that is the Big 12 this year, normally reliable TCU is 1-7 against the spread and normally high-flying Baylor has been under the total in six of seven games.
Some of those are anomalies, sure, but this is the one that we should have seen coming and been able to exploit – LSU, according to Vegasinsider.com numbers, has not been in a game that has gone over yet. Yes, seven LSU games and seven unders.
With that, let’s go to the picks (lines are from Vegasinsider.com as of Thursday morning):
Georgia minus-2.5 over Kentucky. Is Kentucky better? You bet it is. Is Kentucky in the SEC mix and Georgia out of it? Absolutely. And the Fab 4 is backing a road dog in a night game with a team with a freshman quarterback and an offense that looked like the walking dead for the final three quarters last week against Florida? For certain. Who has better athletes? Georgia. Who has won this game by at least three scores the last three years? Georgia. No matter the tendencies or the stakes, there simply is a divide in talent across the board here that makes the need for Georgia to just win by a field goal or less a great price. And know this: if the Bulldogs do not win, the questions about whether Kirby Smart can do this will be grow from silent wonderings to outright Bulldog growls.
Arkansas plus-5.5 over Florida. Sometimes, timing is something. And somethings are summarily about things. What? Man that sounds like a confused fortune cookie. But it means this: Arkansas has had two weeks to hear about how awful they are after a nightmare knockout punch the Hogs got at Auburn. Florida has lived pretty high on themselves for the last couple of weeks, especially at the expense of some UT shade. But what really is Florida’s best win? The 24-10 showing over a listless Georgia bunch, maybe. Arkansas is physical and itching for a chance to erase that disaster at Auburn. In truth, here’s thinking the points are a gift and Arkansas wins the game outright.
FSU minus-5.5 at N.C. State. We can all this one the Clemson Hangover Bowl and the result will be determined in a lot of ways by which team can vanquish the lingering memories of having a shot at upsetting the No. 2-ranked Tigers and letting it slip through their fingers. It happened to FSU just last week so the memories will be fresher, but after Jimbo Fisher’s tirade, those memories also will lead to fire. N.C. State missed a short field goal at the end of regulation that would have toppled Clemson last month and since then the Wolfpack have been housed by Louisville and very uninspired against a bad Boston College team. Edge: FSU. Now add in the Dalvin Cook factor, and we’ll take the Seminoles.
Troy minus-20 over Mass. Seems like a lot of points, right? Well, here are a couple of things to know: Mass is one of the very few teams in the country that will be playing its 10th game this weekend on the 10th Saturday of the season. Troy is playing its eighth. Mass has all of two wins total – topping Wagner and Florida International, which collectively sounds like a shipping conglomerate in South Beach. Troy’s offense has scored 30 or more in every game save one, the Trojans’ 30-24 loss at No. 2 Clemson. Now try to picture the travel plans for Mass to get to Troy? There’s not convenient way to get to Troy, Ala., folks. This has the feel of 45-7.
Northwestern-Wisconsin under the 41.5. The under in Wisconsin games has been the one fairly consistent trend we’ve been able to ride this fall. The Badgers have been regularly playing games in the teens and low 20s and the total has gone under the Vegas line in six of eight Wisconsin games. This one feels like more of the same as neither Northwestern or Wisconsin has a lot of game-breaking-type speed and each protects the ball and works field position.
Last week: 3-2 against the spread (60 percent). This season: 30-24 against the spread (55.6 percent)
Chicago Cubs president for baseball operations Theo Epstein celebrates after Game 7 of the Major League Baseball World Series Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016, in Cleveland. The Cubs won 8-7 in 10 innings to win the series 4-3. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) Cubs win it all
Well, that was everything.
Everything sports can be about. Everything that it means to be a fan. Win or lose. Everything that makes the drama and drastic, the passion and the pain, the celebration and the sadness so powerful. Everything that baseball is supposed to be. Deliberate and exhilarating. Strategic and Happenstance. Planned and completely random.
And maybe most importantly, everything the Cubs and their long-suffering fans knew it could be.
The Chicago Cubs, for the first time in 108 years, are the world champions.
It was a scene so surreal you had to sneak a second look at the scoreboard and double check that the final out – a calm and collected Kris Bryant fielding a grounder as he smiled in the most pressure packed baseball moment in the Windy City since Joe Jackson and the Black Sox waited on Kennesaw Landis’ decision – as Wednesday night became Thursday morning really was the end of Game 7.
The end of the curse. The end of the jokes and the jabs. The end of ‘Wait ’till Next Year’ comments. The end of the goat and Bartman and the collapse of ’69.
And we are left this morning in a world in which the Cubs are the baseball champions after coming back from a 3-1 hole, the Cleveland Cavs are the NBA champions after coming back from a 3-1 hole and Denver won a Super Bowl with Peyton Manning at quarterback in his worst season ever after years of pain and anguish and multiple neck surgeries.
It’s been a championship season for the comeback, for sure, but perspective can drip in other places on other days. This is the Cubs moment.
It’s the moment for Theo Epstein, the Cubs president who officially punched his ticket to Cooperstown with this club. Epstein ended the epic title drought in Boston by assembling the 2004 team that did the unthinkable and toppled the Yankees after falling into a 3-0 hole in the ALCS. Now he assembled this team – 23 of the 25 players on the Cubs roster were either drafted, signed or traded for by Epstein – and watched as they ended the longest streak without a championship in professional sports.
It’s the moment for this collection of young talent that never has to hear anymore about any of the things that they had nothing to do with. It’s the moment for David Ross, the back-up catcher who has been called America’s teammate because of his gracious style and demeanor. America also wants you on their team when you homer deep to center off the previously unhittable Andrew Miller, so there’s that.
It’s the moment for Jason Heyward, the big ticket free agent signing that has struggled all season with the bat but delivered an emotional and impactful speech during the improbable rain delay as late in Game 7. Jon Lester said afterward: “I thought we needed it, after that home run and them coming back and all the momentum on their side. So it was a big moment for us. I thought Jay-Hey spoke up at just the right time.” He may have barely hit .200 this year and was little more than a role player in the postseason, but if that speech turned the tide – remember the rain came after the Indians hit a three-run, two-out homer off the unhittable Champman to tie the game at 6 – he was worth every penny of that $184 million contract.
And, maybe, just maybe, it was a moment for all of us. It was a moment when sports made sense and the best team won and the magic didn’t die.
It was the moment that we didn’t need replay to determine the call or debate this protest or that off-the-field scandal. It was the moment that we watched and wondered, not knowing what was going to happen and remembering ever so fondly why sports were the first and will forever be the best reality TV programming out there.
It was the moment that the Cubs won the World Series.
This and that
– There was so much from the World Series last night it was impossible to get it all in. So let’s get some items out here of the surreal. There are roughly 400 women, according to this detailed math breakdown by Bloomberg news http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-28/how-many-108-year-old-cubs-fans-are-there-anyway, and roughly 40 men in the U.S. alive today who were born in 1908.
– In 1908, just 13 days before the Cubs beat the Tigers to win that year, the Ford Motor Co. unveiled the first Model T. It retailed for $850.
– In 1908, the world’s tallest building was the Singer Building in Manhattan. It stood at all of 47 stories.
– In 1908, workers and engineers were about halfway through completing the Panama Canal.
– In 1908, Mother’s Day was celebrated for the very first time.
– In 1908, women were not allowed to vote – that wrong was righted 12 years later in 1920.
– In 1908, there were no zippers, which were invented in 1911.
– In 1908, there were only 46 states in these United States of America.
– In 1908, a man’s life expectancy was 49.5 years. Today, it’s 76.6.
– In 1908, if you wanted to watch the Cubs you had to buy a ticket. Baseball on radio started in 1921 and TV came around in 1939.
– In 1908, and if you did decide to watch a game, you were going to have to take the day off work. All baseball games were played in the day until the first night game in 1935.
– And finally, sports Twitter is a way more fun place than politics Twitter, as this collection of social media responses can attest. http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/look-twitter-has-jokes-memes-and-congrats-after-cubs-win-world-series/
Today’s question
OK, now that the Cubs have cleared their names from the list of the championship banished. And Cleveland as a city too, since the Cavs brought home a title, let’s start here:
What is the Rushmore of franchises that now carry the banner as the lovable loser that everyone would want to get behind?
Feels like the Bills for sure would be on that list as a great storyline of a downtrodden franchise. Who else?