The Not-so-Big 10

Last month, I wrote an article about the Pac 10's lack of bowl teams and the reasons it happened. In that article I talked about true strength of schedule and perceived strength of schedule, and how different they were. After quoting Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee about the perceived strength of schedule in the Big 10, I pointed out that none of the 3 Big 10 co-champions were in the top half of teams ranked by strength of schedule.

Yesterday, we saw proof of that fact, as two of those three went down in games they were expected to win. Wisconsin lost to TCU, from the non-automatic qualifying Mountain West Conference, a team many said didn't belong in the BCS, despite their perfect record. Michigan State lost to Alabama, who despite being the defending National Champion, lost 3 games this year and was thought by many to be down from last year. Michigan State, who was never in the top 25 of my rankings this season, did not score until there were less than 6 minutes remaining in the game and Alabama was already celebrating the most lopsided win in Capital One Citrus Bowl History.

If these two teams are your champions, how good can the rest of the conference be? Prior to their 3 matchups with the Big 10 yesterday, the SEC had failed to win a single bowl game this season. The Big 12, who has claimed another two victories over the Big 10 this bowl season, also has a losing record in the bowls overall. In fact, the only Automatic Qualifying conferences that currently have a winning bowl record are the Big East and the ACC, who have been the butt of BCS jokes all season long. Meanwhile, the Mountain West is 4-1, including TCU's Rose Bowl win over Wisconsin, and the Sun Belt is a perfect 2-0. It all just goes to show that the talent gap is not as wide in college football as some would have you believe.

NBA Player of the Day

LeBron James - MIA - 25 pts, 7 reb, 10 ast, 7-15 FG, 11-17 FT
On the same day that he said publicly that he didn't expect to win the MVP (see here), LeBron won the Player of the Day award again, marking the fourth straight game that a member of the Heat took that honor. While he may be right in thinking the voters won't select him after a "down" statistical year, he is still the best player on one of the best teams and fully deserves to be considered for MVP.

Predictions - 2 Jan

Upset picks are in italics.

NBA

Pacers at Knicks - Knicks by 4
Hawks at Clippers - Hawks by 2
Celtics at Raptors - Celtics by 8
Mavericks at Cavaliers - Mavericks by 10
Rockets at Trail Blazers - Trail Blazers by 3
Suns at Kings - Suns by 5
Grizzlies at Lakers - Lakers by 8

College Basketball

Miami at (1) Duke - Duke by 24
Miami-Ohio at (3) Kansas - Kansas by 31
Rutgers at (8) Villanova - Villanova by 18
Tennessee State at (22) Memphis - Memphis by 17
Texas Southern at (23) Baylor - Baylor by 21
(24) Wisconsin at (25) Illinois - Illinois by 6
Saint Francis-PA at North Carolina - North Carolina by 31
Davidson at Vanderbilt - Vanderbilt by 16
Arizona at Oregon State - Arizona by 13

Prediction Results - 1 Jan

College Football: 6/6 (1.000) 52/79 overall (.658)
NBA: 7/8 (.875) 224/308 overall (.727)
College Basketball: 3/3 (1.000) 187/219 overall (.854)

The only game I missed yesterday was the Mavericks loss to the Bucks, which happened in part because MVP Candidate Dirk Nowitzki missed the game. I got all 6 bowl games right, and even got pretty close on the margins on most of them.