Random Thoughts - Tuesday November 18

With morning temps here in Ceres in the single digits as the snow continues to fall...

#13 Tennessee vs. UT-Martin Preview
Head on over to The BruceBall Blog for tonight's game preview (7:00 PM - SportSouth). The Vols will head to the mid-state area this weekend, with Bruce and the boys in Murfresboro Friday night to take on MTSU, while Fulmer and the Vols are in Nashville Saturday at 12:30 to take on the bowl-eligible Vanderbilt Commodores. This sports weekend may not do it for you, but next week - with the Vols in Orlando for the Old Spice Classic, the Titans on Thanksgiving Day at Detroit, and Fulmer's last game in Knoxville, good things are on the way.

Also tonight, you can check out Kentucky's 0-2 start when they take on #1 North Carolina in Chapel Hill. 9:00 PM, ESPN.

Barack Obama vs. BCS
Looks like the almighty dollar is going to demand that the president-elect win a second term before he'll get a chance to take down college football's bowl system in favor of a playoff. Obama said both before the election on ESPN, and in his first interview after winning on 60 Minutes, that he was in favor of an eight-team college football playoff, and that he might throw his weight around on the issue.

Well, here's some weight for you: ESPN and the BCS are close to inking a deal for the worldwide leader to televise the next rotation of BCS games, from 2011-2014. Fox has the package until 2010, but apparently chose not to match ESPN's offer this time around, which is certainly in the hundreds of millions.

If this deal is passed, don't look for anything concrete on a potential playoff until 2014, like it or not.

This, of course, gives me another reason to link back to this post from late November 2006: The Idiot's Guide to a College Football Playoff. Aside from being proved wrong about a two-loss team winning the National Championship under the current format, I still think everything else about this piece really holds up well, and is still the very best and most logical I can do on how college football should take care of this problem.

Meanwhile in the real world, if Oklahoma beats Texas Tech on Saturday night, you've already got something relatively unfair going on in the Big 12 South in a three-way tie. And what if a good Missouri team happens to upset the South winner in the Big 12 Championship? Could we see an instant turnaround SEC Championship Game rematch if the Gators beat Alabama in Atlanta? Will one of the Big 12 South teams that was left out now slide in? Or will Alabama and Texas Tech win out to keep everyone sane?

Do you think if Obama runs in 2012 on a platform of "I guarantee you a college football playoff", he's guaranteed re-election?

The Most Constructive Waste of Time on the Internet
If you're not familiar with sporcle.com, you should be - this website updates every day with multiple quizzes, ranging from "name all the US Presidents in 10 minutes" to "name all the Dungeons & Dragons classes in 7 minutes", which was featured today and I'm proud to say I scored a zero on. Because Final Fantasy is way more cool.

Anyway, they've got a plethora of sports-related quizzes on there, among many others to stimulate the mind and, more than anything else, brutally humble you. Today's update included 84 Athlete Nicknames in 8 minutes, where they give you the nickname and you name the athlete in seven combined sports. I got 71/84, including an almost perfect run thru baseball and basketball (cannot believe I missed The Dunking Dutchman). Play and enjoy, and remember - just because you don't know how to spell their last name doesn't give you an excuse to google it. No cheating.