2018 AFC South Preview

Happy Friday! We're onto the second half of my series of NFL previews and beginning the second thousand posts here at Confessions of a Sportscaster!

So far I've covered the North and West divisions in my circle around the country, and we're working through the South now before finishing up out east.

Continuing with my pattern of alternating conferences, we're back in the AFC today as we look at its South division.

2018 NFC West Preview

In October of 2011, I started this blog as a way to market myself and have some fun writing about sports. And today, August 30, 2018, marks a milestone for me: the 1000th Confession of a Sportscaster.

Most of these confessions have been about one of the seven Tournaments of Champions I've run, the most recent of which is awaiting its championship game this weekend. I'm also picking up a seventh year of my Pigskin Pick 'Em contest, renewing my weekly column with Adam Quinn where we pick NFL games.

But the honor of being my 1000th Confession goes to my preview series for the 2018 NFL season, in particular my picks for the NFC West. Let's get to it!

2018 AFC West Preview

We're onto Day 3 of my series of NFL previews, and we're working our way counterclockwise around the country as we go division by division.

Over the last couple days I've taken a look at the two North divisions, and by the time we hit the middle of next week I will have made my predictions for the entire league. We're swapping back to the AFC today, and this time we're looking out west as we'll eventually circle our way back to the division holding our defending champion.

2018 NFC North Preview

We're onto Day 2 of my NFL preview series for the 2018 season, and I'm also settling into a rhythm.

As in prior years, I'm alternating conferences while circling my way around the league. This year began with the North, and yesterday saw the AFC get priority. This means today I'm back in my home park, so to speak, looking at the local division of the NFC North.

2018 NFL Tournament of Champions: Semifinals

If you're following along at home, the 2018 NFL season begins in just ten days. That means my NFL preview series is kicking off, with the AFC North preview going live earlier this morning. Stay tuned over the next several days as I continue to go through the league division by division. My home division of the NFC North will go live tomorrow morning.

But while this is going on, the NFL Tournament of Champions is starting to wind down. At the beginning of May I opened with the 52 Super Bowl champions in an effort to find the best team of all time (not counting the pre-Super Bowl era, which, given how the postseason field looked, those teams probably wouldn't have made it). But now we're down to four, with the title game scheduled for Labor Day Sunday night.

Of the 24 teams that made it as far as the postseason, only two group winners remain, and they are our two top seeds who got to host this weekend. They have tough challenges ahead of them against teams from the new millenium.

Who will play for the Championship of Champions? To find out, we're giving home field advantage to our two remaining group winners based on seeding and record. Weather conditions from the weekend are being taken into account. You can view scores and standings for the tournament here, and I will embed the updated bracket below. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2018 AFC North Preview

We're 10 days away from the start of the NFL season, which means it's time for me to start looking into what I think will happen in the upcoming year!

I've plugged this a little bit already as the summer winds down, but the annual Pigskin Pick 'Em contest is back for its seventh year, and for the fifth year in a row Adam Quinn and I will present our picks every Thursday of the season. It's a project I'm once again looking forward to.

But in the meantime, I'm going to go through every team over the next eight weekdays and make my predictions. As usual, I will go division by division, alternating conferences until I end with the division holding the defending champion. The way I originally scheduled this had my home division predictions going up on Labor Day, and because I'd like to have a little more chance for web traffic, I'm opting to start in the north, and since an NFC team is champion, that means we start this series with the AFC North.

College Football and the 2018 Death to the BCS Playoffs

It's late August. And that usually means that it's time for me to begin preparations for the upcoming college football season and thus the Death to the BCS Playoffs. It's been one of my favorite projects to undertake over the last several years. But circumstances have changed.

You may remember back in March I wrote a kind of cryptically-titled post on here. And my fears in March have been somewhat confirmed. While there have been updates on WhatIfSports, one of which enabled me to cobble together this year's big project in the second NFL Tournament of Champions, college football has not updated yet. Supposedly the 2017 teams are in the works, but as of August 22nd, those teams are still not live, which gives me little faith that the 2018 teams will be come December.

2018 NFL Tournament of Champions: Quarterfinals

The third week of the NFL preseason is all but upon us, which means it's time to continue with the NFL Tournament of Champions!

I began this project back in May with the 52 Super Bowl champions. 13 weeks of round robin action narrowed that field down to 24, and now we're down to the last eight. Of our teams still standing, six of them received first round byes, meaning they finished in the top two of their respective groups. That leaves three matchups full of chalk, while our fourth was upset-heavy, leaving a #3 seed hosting in this round while a #5 seed pulled off back to back road victories. That means one of those two teams will go onto the semifinals. Meanwhile, the top two teams are still standing: our defending champion 1999 St. Louis Rams and top overall seed 1996 Green Bay Packers.

Those two teams would not face off until the finale Labor Day weekend, which is still a little way's away. We have four matchups to get through from this weekend that come first. Weather conditions from the host sites (higher seeds based on group finish host) are taken into account. You can view the scores and standings from group play here, and I will post the updated bracket below the recaps in this post. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's determine the final four!

2018 NFL Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round 2

In May, I started this year's big project: another NFL Tournament of Champions. We grabbed the 52 Super Bowl champions and put them into a free for all. Coming into this past weekend, we were down to 16 teams.

The top two teams from each group during the 13 weeks of round robin play all got a bye last week as the teams that finished anywhere from third to sixth got to fight to advance to this stage. Four upsets and four chalk matchups later, we come to the second round.

Once again, seeding based on finish in group play is determining home field advantage. When we get to the point where same seeds may face off, record becomes the first tiebreaker, followed by point differential. But that's not until the semifinals in a couple weeks.

Weather conditions from the host cities over the weekend is taken into account. You can view scores here, and the updated bracket will be posted below as well. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2018 NFL Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round 1

After three months' worth of games, it's finally time to get the playoffs started!

13 weeks and 312 games narrowed our field of the 52 Super Bowl champions down to 24. The top six teams from each group have all advanced to this point. Seven wins guaranteed you a berth in the postseason, while we had ten teams finish at .500, though only two of those teams made the cut thanks to head to head and point differential tiebreakers. The bracket is set and can be seen below.

So after several weeks of simulating 24 games, we're cutting this down to eight games over each of the next two weeks. With 24 teams advancing this far, anyone who finished in the top two in their group got a first round bye and a week to rest up.

I opted to schedule out the postseason like the NFL does, splitting games between the Saturday and the Sunday for more simulated viewership. It was also a necessity for this round, as two iterations of the Dallas Cowboys are slated to play at home.

Weather conditions from the host cities will be taken into account for each game. You can view the final standings and scores from group play here. The postseason bracket is embedded below and will be updated as the postseason goes along. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's play some playoff football!