Nobrainer’s Think Tank

Let’s go to the video for evidence:

Have a good weekend folks!

[College Humor]

I lack the time to properly analyze an NCAA bracket in order to maximize my odds of winning the pool (if I were involved in such things, which of course I am not since such things are illegal and I would never, ever, ever break a stupid law). Then again, I’m not sure I possess the knowledge to effectively maximize my chances. Picking the highest seeds may be the best thing to do (especially when not putting a lot of time or effort into it), but damn if that isn’t boring as hell.

And it’s just what we got out of #42, who usually seems a bit more exciting than this:

The ex-prez gives his Final Four — Florida, North Carolina, Ohio State and Kansas

Come on, Bill, be a little creative. Take a little risk. I dunno, maybe throw in a #2 seed just for excitement.

Friday afternoon Rachel and I set out from Charlottesville to drive to Athens, GA to watch some college baseball. We made it down and back and Oregon State swept the Dawgs in their own pen. It was an all around success.

(more…)

College football just doesn’t need a championship. Clearcut, easy-to-determine championships aren’t bad — most people like them — but the constant debate behind today’s so-called championship is far more valuable to the sport than having any kind of true, undisputed champion. In that sense, the BCS is the perfect solution. It kinda makes a champion which kinda pleases a lot of people, but the process is so open for debate that people are prone to spending far too much time, well, debating it.

So I’m going to contribute to the greatness of NCAA DIA football by putting my 2 cents on the table.

As if we were not aware already, human polls are crocks-o-crap. As a detractor, I’ve said it for years. The proponents love it because they can subjectively change rankings for no really good reason. Which is also why I am a detractor. And this weeks’ polls are perfect examples.

In all the polls — USA Today, AP, and Harris — Michigan was ranked ahead of Florida from Week 8 onward. That continued even after Michigan was handed a 3 point loss by #1 Ohio State in week 13. And that seemed fine with everyone because it looked like USC was headed to play Ohio State in the “national championship” game.

But then, then, USC unexpectedly lost.

And the OSU-Michigan re-match was on!

Or at least the re-match was on until the voters realized it and decided they just didn’t want a re-match. I don’t personally want to see a re-match, but it’s pretty dadgum clear that the voters voted on a matchup and not on rankings. Out was voting on who deserved to be #2. They voted on who they felt deserved to play Ohio State.

Ri-fucking-diculous.

On another note about the whole debate, is the issue of strength of schedule. My problem is that most people use NCAA “toughest schedule” (.pdf) The NCAA ranking is based solely on opponent wins and losses.

That bothers me because people who use it are basically saying that it is not enough to judge just by record. But they unblinkingly go on to use the NCAA ranking… which is based on just records. I take this as further proof that the talking heads — much like politicians — are happy to cherry pick data for the sake of making themselves seem important.

In 2 weeks I’ve been on 3 trips, in 5 cities, and covered about 2,000 miles in my car. I’ve slept in 6 beds and on one floor. I estimate I’ve gained 5 pounds. In other news:

• Comcast/Adelphia has yet to resolve last week’s problem.
• O’Neill’s Irish pub was understaffed today with people who didn’t know how to change the channels on the television. The waitress told us she didn’t own a TV, never watched TV, and that she didn’t know how to operate a TV. I also noticed that she doesn’t know what Guinness is.
• It was cool that Comcast Sports picked up the FSN broadcast of the Oregon/Oregon State game. It wasn’t cool that when the game went long they cut the game to 5% of the screen and cut the audio in favor of hockey.

‘Tis the season to be Merry.

Fuck them all.

I was looking over some football stats, trying to determine which ACC school has the greatest home field advantage. Based on my reasoning, UVA enjoys that position.

For ACC teams with their current head coaches, I compared winning percentages at home and on the road both for all games and just for league games. And under Coach Groh, the Cavs are more than twice as likely to win at home as on the road. That means that Scott Stadium is truly one of the underappreciated home fields, or Al Groh is extremely bad at motivating his tropps on the road.