The SoapBoxers

Professional football – Wild Card Weekend

This weekend, all of the home teams in the NFL playoffs won.  One game went to overtime with the new rules, but a quick touchdown made those new rules mute.  What did we learn from these games?  Well actually a lot.  First, apparently Tim Tebow can throw the ball.  The best defense in the league was not that good suggesting that offense is trumping defense this year.  The Houston Texans are for real, the Detroit Lions were not.  There will not be a rematch in the Super Bowl.  The Atlanta Falcons cannot buy a forth down conversion, and the Cincinnati Bengals cannot get a challenge in their favor.

Professional football – Divisional Weekend

In the end, the New York Giants move on to play the Green Bay Packers while the New Orleans Saints go to San Francisco to play the 49ers in the National Football Conference.  The Denver Broncos visit the New England Patriots while the Houston Texas will challenge the Baltimore Ravens in the American Football Conference.  Since I was wrong in three of my four predictions this week, I will reassess my predictions for the Super Bowl.  I now believe that we will have a Green Bay Packers – Baltimore Ravens match up with the Ravens winning it all.  Go ahead, make comments.

College Football – the Bowl Games

It looks like the Big XII did the best in the bowls with a 6-2 record.  That is pretty good for a conference with only 10 teams.  Next year they will be down to 8 of the original teams, 5 from the Big 8 and 3 from the Southwest Conference.  We will have to see what additional realignments come about.  The Mid-America Conference (MAC), Conference USA (CUSA),  and the Big East have the same winning percentage with a 3-1 record.  The SEC could have done better, but since tonight’s game is a win and a loss, they will be 6-3 in bowls.  All of the other conferences had losing records with the Big 10 having the most teams with 10 but only a 4-6 record.

You could say that there are way too many bowl games.  At this point more than half of the teams in the BCS conferences get to go to bowls.  We have to remember that this is part of the college experience and one last opportunity for some of these players to audition for jobs in the pros.  I like seeing people put on their college colors and cheer on the team.  I for one had a great bowl season since my school won.  I am hoping for a complete analysis of the BCS championship from Johnny since he is the ”sports guy” for the Soap Boxers.

First we will start in the NFL, where the last of the playoff spots were sorted out. We learned a couple of things in the NFL this weekend.

1. Terence Newman is even worse than most Cowboys fans in my office thought. I have heard complaints about his lack of ability to cover himself with coat before stepping outside on a cold day, but he showed this weekend against the Giants that he simply is not very good.
2. It appears Tebow Time is over.
3. Matt Flynn just made himself some serious money looking towards next year.

Bowl Games

The College Bowls took seat front and center yesterday with the traditional January 1st bowl games moved to Monday due to Sunday and the NFL.

Worst game of the day had to be Penn State versus Houston. Neither team really wanted to be there but the fact is Houston has an offense and Penn State does not.

The best game of the day is up for debate, but my vote goes to the Oklahoma State win over Stanford. I would still have loved seeing Oklahoma State avoid the upset against the Iowa State Cyclones and be playing for it all due to their ability to score in bunches.

Better yet, how about a Cowboys versus Ducks matchup. I am after everyone would be handed 3-D Glasses to view the newest uniforms rolled out to each of these two teams, watching the actual game would remind anyone in their early 40’s of the glory days of play Super Tecmo Bowl. I would give the edge to Oregon in a shootout. 84-80.

Worst of the Worst – from Bowl Games

You have GOT to feel badly for a pair of kickers yesterday. First off Georgia Kicker Blair Walsh….While he became the Southeastern Conference’s career scoring leader with a field goal in the second overtime, he missed a 42-yarder in the first overtime and then had a 47-yard attempt blocked on the final play of the game.

You have got to feel even worse for Stanford freshman kicker Jordan Williamson, who missed 3 kicks – including one at the end of regulation to win the game and again another miss in overtime. On the game’s final drive, he reminded me of the pitcher throwing a no-no late in the game, he was all by himself, basically excluded from the rest of his team on the sidelines. He looked nervous to me on television, but he is only a dreshman, so hopefully he will bounce back.

Worst of the Worst – is two of the Marquee players in the Capital One Bowl, Alfonso Dennard and Alshon Jeffery get into a slugging match on the sideline and both players are thrown out. Not a great thing to do on the national stage, in your final game of your college career

An even Bigger bomb was dropped by the Capital One Bowl who selected Jeffrey with their MVP award for the game.

I am sure he was chosen for his “Hail Mary” catch right before halftime, which definitively turned the tide and the momentum of the game in South Carolina’s favor. However, giving an award to a person ejected from a football game for fighting with another player sets an exceedingly poor example, no matter how big the player’s impact in the game. You can’t select that person as the winner of an award on individual merits in this fame based on principal alone.

Boo Capital One….

Until Next Time, Stay Classy St Matthews, South Carolina.

The Bowl Lineups are all set. This year we have 35 glorious bowl games until we then have to wait around for the NFL playoffs. Once the NFL gets out of the way, it is a whole bunch of dead air space until we hit the time known as March Madness (sorry Hockey fans, I am just not buying the NHL)

As always ESPN tries to make mountains out of molehills and stir up the pot before the over hyped BCS Selection Show, that was on Sunday evening. Did anyone really thing that Oklahoma State was going to leapfrog Alabama and take on Louisiana State in the BCS Title Game? Yawner here for me, I am not sure I would watch this game other than it is the only game on that night. To me, bowl game rematches are about as exciting as pulling staples out of large stacks of paper.

Large paper stacks make me think of one of my favorite sponsorships for the Bowl season this year. It has got to be the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl. I mean when I think of Football, I think of an accounting service with a supercharged name like TaxSlayer.

A general rule of thumb is that if someone has to do an internet search to see what the heck the sponsorship is, you need to be spending your money somewhere first other than on a Bowl Sponsorship. For those who are wondering, The Belk Bowl between Louisville and North Carolina State is some sort of retailer down south apparently. A northerner like me has never heard of this company. I guess that is why they are pitting two “southern” schools against one another – further optimizing their revenues.

Apparently, Meineke has downsized as now instead of being called the Meineke Car Care Bowl, as in the past – it is now the Meineke Car Care of Texas Bowl. This just furthers my conspiracy theories that the Republic will continue to seek to leave the union and become independent once again. First the Longhorn Network, then the hanging on by the skin of your teeth to keep the Big XII together, and now this. What do all of the other Meineke outlets think about this. It is OUTRAGE I tell you!

Another one I had to look up on line was the BBVA Compass Bowl, which matches up SMU and Pittsburgh. I learned that BBVA is in fact not really the name. It is the accepted “trade name” of BBVA Compass Bancshares INC. I think for truth in advertising, the bowl should therefore be renamed the BBVA COMPASS BANCHARES INC dba BBVA Compass Bank Bowl. Does the NCAA have no input on truth in advertising? Do you think ESPN wants this potential mess of false advertising on their network? At the very least this would give this bowl a runaway lead for the longest bowl name by far which would be way more exciting than this game is going to be for anyone to watch outside of Mustang or Panther fans.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. Not because of the name, but because of the situation involving the bowl game. Illinois Coach Ron Zook is fired. On the other side UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel is fired, and better yet, the Bruins are technically not bowl eligible (as they have a sub .500 record) as they are currently 6-7 on the year. If they lose this game, which I think they will, they will end the year at 6-8. EEEEEESSSSHHHHHH! The NCCA gave them an exemption to go to a bowl game with this record as they were forced to play in the first Pac 12 title game match-up – because the USC Trojans are on probation and not eligible to play this year. A true genius move by the NCCA.

Good luck in all of your office pools. Stay tuned next week for the Johnny G Bowl Prediction Show.

Until next time – Stay Classy Edmonton, Alberta Canada