Must See Sports - Fifth Weekend of August 2013

Last week's advantage/disadvantage record, excluding series: 3-2
Last week's advantage/disadvantage record in series: 4-1
2013 Advantage/Disadvantage Record, excluding series: 39-32 

2013 Advantage/Disadvantage Record (series only): 12-9-4

College football is back. The MLB pennant races are fire-hot! And another sport played on grass picks up after this week!

Saturday, August 31, 2013

NCAA Football

#5 Georgia Bulldogs at #8 Clemson Tigers

The Georgia Bulldogs look strong this year. They came very close to reaching the BCS National Championship game a year ago and have returned more than enough players that should feel like they have unfinished business. Quarterback Aaron Murray (36 TD, 10 INT in 2012) is a Heisman hopeful coming into this season. Running back Todd Gurley (1385 yds., 17 TD in 2012) has fist team All-SEC potential. The defense, while sometimes allowing more points that most SEC defenses last season, is expected to be on par with last year's squad that sacked the quarterback 32 times last year. Mark Richt has a great opportunity to not be an NCAA bridesmaid this year.

Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney has had the Tigers with high preseason hopes in the last two seasons. Each of those seasons delivered results short of those expectations. Still, the talent is evident, as reflected in their #8 preseason ranking. Quarterback Tajh Boyd (69 passing TD the past two seasons, 10 rushing TD in 2012) returned for his senior season. I believe that was the right choice and he has an opportunity to push his stock up toward the early rounds of the 2014 NFL Draft. Junior wideout Sammy Watkins (57 rec. in 2012) has an opportunity to break out of the shadows of DeAndre Hopkins, now with the NFL's Houston Texans.

I tend to be biased toward the SEC. But Clemson is on a different level than most non-SEC programs. They stunned LSU in last year's Chick-Fil-A Bowl and do not appear to have as many defensive vulnerabilities as Georgia. Being an LSU man, I am sure I have friends who will not approve of me "taking sides against the family", but I like the home ACC school in a minor upset on national television (ABC).

Advantage: Clemson

Clemson had plenty to cheer about in their last nationally televised matchup against an SEC team. 1

#12 LSU Tigers vs #20 TCU Horned Frogs
from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX

LSU is reeling after two consecutive underachieving seasons: a 2011 season in which their 13-0 start was soured in the BCS National Championship game by the team that finished second in the SEC West division: the Alabama Crimson Tide, now two-time defending BCS National Champions, and a 2012 season without 2011 Heisman Finalist Tyrann Mathieu due to disciplinary issues and a narrow, last-minute loss to Bama at home that likely would have sent the Tigers to the SEC Championship Game with a win.

TCU has remained competitive after its move to the Big XII. This is a school that can hang with the best in recruiting. This is probably why the Frogs are ranked in spite of a losing Big XII record and only seven wins overall last season. LSU sent 11 players to the NFL from last year's team. But this team reloads. The backfield is loaded, anchored by sophomore Jeremy Hill (12 rushing TD in 2012), junior Kenny Hilliard (5.7 YPC in 2012) and senior Alfred Blue (6.8 YPC in 2012). The embarrassment of riches that the Tigers have in the backfield is reminiscent of a video game rather than an actual backfield.

TCU has a pseudo-home field advantage, but not really. I expect this game to be competitive early, but not close at the end. I hope ESPN's advertisers get their spots run early.

Advantage: LSU

Jeremy Hill overpowers South Carolina for a touchdown last season. 2

Sunday, September 1

Major League Baseball

Baltimore Orioles at New York Yankees
Wei-Yin Chen (7-7, 3.76 ERA) - Orioles vs Andy Pettitte (10-9, 4.05 ERA) - Yankees

I understand why teammates of embattled Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez (.272, 4 HR, 9 RBI) have publicly rallied around him. They've been a completely different team since he returned from a hip injury earlier this month. The good karma appears to have spread to the pitching staff. Andy Pettitte was consistently inconsistent, with more bad than good until the month of August. Pettitte is riding a string of three consecutive winning decisions and has only surrendered two earned runs in his last four starts, including seven scoreless innings against the heavy-hitting Toronto Blue Jays in his last start. The Yankees have gone from left-for-dead after the All-Star break to having a chance at the postseason, albeit in a crowded field.

The Orioles have been just on the outside looking in in the American League playoff chase. They are 3.5 games back of the Oakland Athletics for the second A.L. Wild Card spot as of Friday evening. Wei-Yin Chen is struggling to get his groove back. After being a vassal of control for most of the season, Chen has a 1-4 record and an ERA of 6.00 in an August that included a demotion to the minors. This U-turn could not come at a worse time for the O's. First baseman Chris Davis' (.303, 47 HR, 122 RBI) bat can only bring in so many runs if Chen gets blown to smithereens like he did in his last start (8 ER in 3.2 IP).

Advantages: Game - Yankees, Series - Yankees

Many critics mocked Rodriguez's comeback, but he's having the last laugh, so far. 3

Wednesday, September 4

Major League Baseball

Detroit Tigers at Boston Red Sox
Rick Porcello (10-7, 4.39 ERA) - Tigers vs Ryan Dempster (6-9, 4.67 ERA) - Red Sox

ESPN.com is listing Ryan Dempster as the Red Sox probable starter for Wednesday's game. However, there is no guarantee Dempster will start. At the moment, he is serving a five game suspension for intentionally hitting Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees in his last start, an embarrassing loss. His sub-par pitching this season is not helping his cause to remain in the rotation when he returns.

This is a matchup of two teams in a dogfight. The Tigers are fighting for home field advantage throughout the American League playoffs while the Red Sox are struggling to pull away from the Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays in the A.L. East division race. While reigning (probably will be "repeating") A.L. M.V.P. Miguel Cabrera (.358, 43 HR, 130 RBI) is listed as day-to-day with an possible sports hernia, he should play in this critical series. While Rick Porcello has been consistently average in his starts, the Tigers bats are so hot that they require a flame retardant so that they don't disintegrate. I also have zero faith in Dempster at this point.

Advantages: Game - Tigers, Series - Tigers

One door closes and another one opens. Tigers ace Justin Verlander may not have worked out with supermodel Kate Upton, but he and his teammates are in the driver's seat for the ultimate prize: a World Series championship. 4

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LT2K1-LT2K11



2

Today, LaDainian Tomlinson will sign a ceremonial one day contract with the San Diego Chargers, the team that drafted him in the first round of the 2001 NFL Draft. Then he will immediately announce his retirement from the NFL. Tomlinson, with little reasonable argument to the contrary available, was the greatest running back of his time.

RAPID RISE

In the year 2000, a close friend of mine, with whom I attended LSU as an undergraduate, moved away to attend graduate school at Texas Christian University. Trying to fit in with the spirit of his new school, he dove into TCU football head first, long before the Horned Frogs were moving to the Big XII, qualifying for BCS Bowl Games and were, instead, competing for the top spot in the mid-major Western Athletic Conference.

Being the good friend that I am, I reminded him of all of the “real” college football action he was missing in Baton Rouge, with a revitalized LSU program under new head coach Nick Saban. My buddy mentioned that TCU had a star of its own, LaDainian Tomlinson. In a condescending, “isn’t that cute,” tone of voice, I chuckled and then said, “La-what to WHO?”


If you don't know, you'd better ask somebody! 1



OPEN MOUTH INSERT FOOT

In the words of the late Notorious B.I.G., “If you don’t know, now you know!” Tomlinson was relatively unknown at the start of his senior season, though on the radars of scouts and college football die-hards following a near-2,000 rushing yard junior season. On track to a 2,158 rushing yard senior year, he went from “relatively unknown” to “known” to “headliner” to “Heisman contender” very quickly. Tomlinson would finish the season as a Heisman finalist. He would be the fifth player chosen in the draft.

Fifth overall pick in the 2001 NFL Draft 3

GREATEST OF HIS TIME

There is always one person who insists upon arguing with the obvious in sports. So for those of you who disagree that Tomlinson was not the best running back of his time, let me rattle off a few facts.

• Five time Pro Bowler (2002, 2004-2007)
• Three time First Team Associated Press All-Pro (2004, 2006-2007)
• Two time NFL rushing champion (2006-2007)
• Associated Press MVP in 2006
• NFL record 28 rushing touchdowns in 2006
• NFL’s second all-time leader in career rushing touchdowns with 145 (Emmitt Smith: 164)
• NFL’s fifth all-time leading rusher with 13,684 yards (Smith, Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, Curtis Martin)

There were great backs in the league at the same time as L.T., such as Edgerrin James and Shaun Alexander. Nobody, however, strung together the consistency, dominance, and longevity like Tomlinson. He was a threat to score every time he touched the ball and was very difficult to tackle after he hit a hole, almost impossible to stop in the open field. If you disagree with my opinion, I invite your reply.

L.T. would do this a few (dozen) times in his career. 4

FATHER TIME IS STILL UNDEFEATED

Running back years are like dog years. And even the great ones begin to slow down substantially around the eighth year of their careers, give or take a year. Tomlinson was no exception, though he continued to be a contributor to his last team, the New York Jets, in his thirties, averaging over four yards per carry and totaling over 2,000 yards from scrimmage during his two seasons in New York.

Regardless, his explosiveness as a runner had completely eroded by the end of the 2011 NFL season. At age 32, I think L.T. retired at the correct time, on his own terms and coming off of a season with a respectable amount of productivity, given his role.

Tomlinson’s ticket to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s 2017 induction is already punched. Today, Tomlinson returns to where is all started in the NFL, then rides off into the sunset. Thanks for the thrills and the memories, L.T..

Tomlinson with the Jets in 2010, age 31. 5

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Death of the NCAA

Who among us likes to hear someone, correctly, tell us, “I told you so,”? None of us, I would presume. Even when the person reminding us of how wrong we were all along is a trusted friend or a family member, at best, the statement does little more than beg to original question. Often, that expression serves of a source of annoyance and a reminder of the downside of our stubbornness.

The NCAA appears to be very close to a point which its members, fans, and business partners can tell it that. For years, fans, journalists, and countless other people have called for a playoff system in college football. The NCAA has insisted upon not implementing a postseason tournament for football. Every logistical excuse is available. The bowls are rooted in college football tradition. There are travel considerations. There is not a clear set of fair criteria.

I have witnessed sports journalist after sports journalist, over the years, come up with a logistically sound playoff system including as few as three and as many as 16 playoff spots. I always found such columns to be interesting, creative, and fun to read. I also thought often, “This will never happen.”

I probably wouldn't mind hearing "I Told You So" directly from Carrie Underwood, but that may be the only exception. 1

DEATH BY A PAIR OF CUTS

Over this past weekend, Syracuse University and the University of Pittsburgh announced their intentions to leave the Big East and join the Atlantic Coastal Conference. The ACC accepted. Within the past month, Texas A&M University announced its plans to leave the Big XII and join the Southeastern Conference. Rumors have already surfaced that the Big XII (which is already down to 10 teams) is in danger of losing two more big names in Oklahoma and Texas. These schools are rumored to be eyeing a move to the Pac-12.

Meanwhile, schools such as Texas Christian University, who recently announced its intention to join the Big East Conference in 2012, may be left holding the bag for several years. TCU joined the Big East, in part, as an effort to improve its status for Bowl Championship Series bowl games and greater access to an opportunity to play for the BCS National Championship. With the exodus of Syracuse and Pittsburgh, in addition to rumors swirling about a possible departure by the University of Connecticut, the Big East appears to be following a similar road as the Big XII: major-conference extinction.

The super-sized expansions of the Pac-12, Big Ten, ACC, and SEC are setting up the stage for a college football world with four super conferences and a playoff system revolving around those conferences. The NCAA appears to have zero say-so or influence on conference affiliation. It has made no effort, whatsoever, to set up a college football playoff system and has elected to allow the bowl system and the media to dictate an unofficial champion of its most popular sport. If the NCAA has so little influence or concern about the structure and postseason of its member schools in football, then what, exactly, do these four super conferences need the NCAA for?

Like I said, TCU may be left holding the bag. 2

PEACE OUT

The NCAA has drowned its member institutions with rules, regulations, sanctions, and probation for every possible misstep imaginable, and some that one could not have imagined before reading about it in the news. I would wager that the organizing body is very unpopular among college football fans and that major college football program institutions would prefer the absense of an environment in which non-compliance is an inevitability, considering the number of people, directly and indirectly, connected to a big-time college football program.

This thought crossed my mind last year when the first wave of conference musical chairs, involving TCU, Utah (Pac-12), and Nebraska (Big Ten) began last year and has only been reinforced by some of the recent speculation I have heard on sports talk radio: Once the super conferences are formed and finalized, those members’ football programs will secede from the NCAA and form their own body, their own rules, and their own playoff system in football.

Ten years ago, such an idea would be inconceivable, to the point of laughter. As it stands, the NCAA has neutered itself in football to the point where member institutions are unilaterally deciding membership alignment. I think, barring an intervention or compromise, that it is only a matter of time before the NCAA is plucked from the affairs of major football programs. Once that happens, what is to stop those institutions from doing the same with their revenue-neutral and loss-leading sports such as basketball, baseball, and track?

I am sure this could make an interesting historical attraction one day. 4

I TOLD YOU SO

The NCAA has come under fire for decades for failing to take steps to draw a fair and definitive conclusion to its college football season for major programs. The conference shuffling of heavy hitting, major schools, is the beginning of a massive power shift in college football from a confederation of major conferences, mid-major conferences, bowl committees, and the BCS to four super conferences possessing the lion’s share of the decision making in college football.

The NCAA deflected, rationalized, and compromised on a means of deciding a champion in college football while being heavy handed with institutions failing to dot “I”s and cross “T”s properly. If it does not act very quickly, decisively, and in a manner that is friendly and accommodating to member schools and fans, its day of reckoning will come sooner than later. The NCAA could be on a road to becoming part of the past of major college football and possibly the past of major college sports altogether.

I wonder how Mr. Finebaum really feels. I doubt he's alone. 3

Don't forget to vote in the fan polls!

To advertise with The Daily Hat Trick, or to submit a guest column, please contact the editor at eric@thedailyhattrick.info.

The Daily Hat Trick is sponsored by Sports N Stuff. For great deals on jerseys, shirts, cologne, and other guy stuff, visit http://www.sportsnstuff.biz/.

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