Week 14: A list of disappointments.

I'm struggling this week to get excited about the upcoming games.  Since, if you've read my blog, you know I'm a shameless Missouri homer, you might think it was because my Tigers aren't in action.  Well, you'd be wrong.  Three championship games are being played, and frankly, they just don't appear to be compelling match ups.  Oh, there are some good story lines, I suppose.  OU and Nebraska playing in the final Big XII championship game is fitting, but by this time, I don't know if the corn have enough left offensively to hang.  Of course I could be wrong, and it turns out to be a fabulous game.  But I'm expecting to see some sort of 6-3 slug fest with a shitload of punts.  Va Tech and Florida State meeting in the ACC title game does absolutely nothing for me, and does anyone really expect South Carolina to stay with Auburn?

But worse for me than the week's schedule has been watching my team's fan base go into full blown whine and bitch mode.  I've been skimming Tiger message boards this week and am just aghast at what I've seen.  We're already complaining about the bowl game we're going to and I can understand to an extent.  Texas A&M has already been selected to go to the Cotton Bowl and the Tigers beat them by three touchdowns at College Station.  But the thing to remember is that other than the national championship game, and to an extent the 4 BCS games, it's pretty much a wash.  The conference shares bowl revenue so it really doesn't matter financially, and for the players sake, and that's what this should be about, a trip to San Diego would be a better reward than traveling to Dallas or San Antonio for the holidays.  One of my favorite sites is PowerMizzou, a pay site that I love for the work we get from Gabe and Pete, but the message board, which supposedly is full of rabid Missouri fans has become completely unreadable.   Tigerboard has always been a bit over the edge and continues, but at least it's a free site where fans from all schools are welcome.  Missouri Tiger fans have always been their own worst enemies, but that's a topic for another day and I'll quit my own whinefest now.

Moving on to the weekends contests, I currently sit at 70-20 straight up for the season, but 39-42 against the point spread.  If I'm going to catch up, I need a good week, followed by some good work on the bowl match ups.  With that in mind, I've devoted almost 10 minutes of research to this weeks games.  We'll start out in Dallas where corn nation meets up with the land thieves in the final Big XII title game, at least for now.  I suppose it's always possible that the league could expand back to 12 teams, but I can't imagine any school with common sense wanting to align themselves to a conference who's shelf life appears to be 5 years.  The Sooners open as a 4 1/2 point favorite in this game, which could also be listed as the over/under.  The hicks have been devastated with injuries on the offensive side of the ball and will have to rely on a stout defense to keep this game close.  I have my doubts they'll be able to do it.  OU has been beatable this year, but Stoops is good when he makes it to the title game and they have a pretty decent defense of their own.  I think Landry Jones takes enough control of this to allow the Sooners to put it away.  I'm picking OU to win and cover, 20-10.

You'd have never guessed it after consecutive losses to Boise State and FBS James Madison to open the season, but Virginia Tech sits at 10-2 and meets up with Florida State in the ACC title game.  Florida State has been fairly pedestrian, although beating in state rivals Miami and Florida was somewhat impressive.  The Hokies open as 4 point favorites, and I don't see them having any problems covering.  I'm taking Va Tech in a rout, 38-13.

In the SEC, Auburn and Cam Newton meet up with the 'Ol ball coach, Steve Spurrier and the South Carolina Gamecocks.  While it's entirely possible that Auburn may have all wins vacated at some point due to, well let's say irregularities with the recruitment of Heisman favorite Newton, it's SEC football and they aren't about to forego an opportunity to have a participant in the national championship game for the umpteenth year in a row.  Auburn rolls in this one, 45-21.
There are some other games that would normally be worth picking, but this year they were damn hard to find.  Arizona/Arizona State, USC/UCLA are pedestrian matchups at best.  I had to look to the Big East, which should NEVER be mentioned in a football blog to find 2 teams with winning records playing.  Yes, mighty UCONN travels to South Florida in a match up of 7-4 teams.  Due to being at home, the Bulls are a 1 point favorite.  I admit, I probably won't watch one second of this game, but I think they'll do just a touch better than that.  I'm taking USF to win and cover, 31-27.
That's all I've got for now.  Hope your holiday was great and you enjoy the weekends match ups.  I can't say that I especially will, but I've got next week off at work, and that always puts a spring in my step.  See you next weekend.