Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category

College Football Thoughts

The College Football Playoff committee has produced this year’s selection of teams, which means that a lot of people are unhappy.

In my case, I should be happy, because the team from down south is not in the playoffs. But the committee didn’t learn its lesson from last year.

And that lesson, that I mentioned last year but apparently the committee didn’t read, is that they shouldn’t place the 3rd-best team from a conference into the national championship playoffs.

One could argue that Alabama is the 3rd-best team in the SEC. And yet they have been selected as the 4th-best team in the country. Why not Auburn, the team that beat them and won Alabama’s division?

I’m not going to go on an Alabama conspiracy theory – I just think the committee is taking the wrong things into account.

They favor minimal losses over conference championships, and I take the opposite view.

I thought the debate in the committee would be between Ohio State and USC – both two-loss conference champions. I personally would have chosen USC, because OSU already lost to Oklahoma so we have an idea of how they would have done in the playoffs.

I like the idea of teams playing significant non-conference games, and I think the committee’s direction undercuts that. If they are going to reward minimal losses and ignore conference championships, it’s in teams’ best interests to setup a favorable schedule.

Plus, with the limited games, there is limited cross-conference comparison, so it’s hard to tell if a two-loss PAC-12 champion is worse than a one-loss Big-12 champion. Maybe the PAC-12 is tougher this year. Maybe Oklahoma would have another loss if they had to play Notre Dame. Now we won’t know until after all the bowls are done if USC should have been the fourth team in the playoff.

I do hope that Clemson will blow out Alabama, to give yet another sample point to the committee that a team that did not make its conference championship game should not make the national championship playoff.

Choose wise and discerning and experienced men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.

Deuteronomy 1:13

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Example of Success

I’d like to present to you today an example of success:

Colin Kaepernick

The critics might disagree, saying that he’s a washed-up quarterback who can’t play in the NFL anymore. But if your definition of success is “currently playing in the NFL”, then over 99.9% of the people in the USA are unsuccessful.

Other critics might contend that he has brought division and conflict to our country with his antics during the national anthem. That might not look like success to you, but your goals are not his goals.

What are his goals? (I haven’t asked him directly, so I’m going off common knowledge and common sense here):

He wanted the country to be aware of (and discuss) the treatment of minorities. He accomplished that, so success.

Before that, as an NFL player he wanted to get his team to the Super Bowl. He accomplished that, so success. Rather, partial success, since he probably wanted to win the game.

Before that, as a college player, he probably wanted to make it to the NFL. Again, success.

I dare say he has accomplished more and been more successful before the age of 30 than many people are in the whole lives. You can say a lot of things about Colin Kaepernick, but unsuccessful should not be one of those things.

The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.

Genesis 39:2

NFL in April, 2017

In the last month or three, we had the announcement of the 2017 NFL schedule. Now that we know who will play whom and when, we can start predicting wins and losses.

I keep my predictions over at Some Fun Site. View results of previous football seasons.

2016 Summary

Last year, I predicted that

  • Cleveland Browns = 3-13
  • Jacksonville Jaguars = 7-9

How they actually did was

  • Cleveland Browns = 1-15
  • Jacksonville Jaguars = 3-13

Kind of close, but not that great.

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Running Tips

Here are some handy tips if you decide to run for exercise (or any other reason, I suppose):

  • If you see a swarm of gnats, put your head down and close your mouth.
  • Don’t sprint through tall grass – you can’t see how uneven the ground is and you’ll sprain your ankle.
  • If you’re running on the road and a car goes past you, be sure to look behind you before you veer back into the driving lane. This applies more to those of us who run on dirt roads that aren’t quite two lanes wide and have no shoulders or lane markings. It’s hard to tell if there’s another car behind a car that passes you.

You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

Matthew 23:24

All-Haiku Bowl Results, 2016

Okay, okay, it is 2017 at this point, but the results are headlines as 2016 because they match with the 2016 predictions made in 2016 for the 2016 season. Also, the results are not all-haiku, just the predictions were. A more accurate title would be “Results for the All-Haiku Predictions made in 2016”.

Before the bowl games commenced for this past college football season, I made some predictions. Here, for your reading enjoyment, is the tally of those predictions. Note that the results are not in haiku form, in contrast to the predictions.
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Football Hindsight

Here are some entries for the Hindsight is 20/20 Department:

  • Maybe a college team that didn’t win its conference shouldn’t be in the playoffs ahead of the team that beat it and did win the conference.
  • Maybe the Heisman should be awarded after the bowl games.
  • Maybe we shouldn’t doubt the Packers, especially if Aaron Rogers makes a declaration as such.

Regarding the second point: maybe Lamar Jackson had a lackluster bowl performance because he’s not that good. Or maybe it was because LSU was looking to shutdown the Heisman winner. Or maybe it was because Jackson already won the Heisman so he wasn’t very motivated. There may be other reasons too, but all of them reinforce the idea that the Heisman should come later.

When the men of Ai turned back and looked, behold, the smoke of the city ascended to the sky, and they had no place to flee this way or that, for the people who had been fleeing to the wilderness turned against the pursuers.

Joshua 8:20

Football Winner Guesser Results – 2016

It is time once again to update Some Blog Site readers on the results of my Some Fun Site project to create a more accurate football prediction method.

The 2016 NFL season is over, and here are the most accurate methods for predicting regular-season game results:

  • ITP: 62%
  • MPWLS: 61%
  • MPW: 60%

This is the first year that neither MPW nor MPWHFA have been the best predictors of wins. Since I didn’t change anything, I will chalk that up to a statistical anomaly. Or maybe I can blame the Rams for moving to LA.

(For the ideas behind the methods, please visit the Some Fun Site page.)

Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

Exodus 1:8