COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em Week 12

We're onto another week of the NFL, and nearing the end of the byes. For Adam and I, we're hoping it will bring with it better weeks.

We've struggled the last couple times out, though we actually tied last week. Even so, it makes back to back weeks of sub-.500 records against the spread. We're hoping to turn that around this time, gimmicks or no.

In a fun twist that only happens every so often, my birthday happens to fall on this NFL Sunday! I get to stay home and watch football! And my wife is totally on board with it! This is awesome!

This week the final two NFL teams take their bye, giving us 15 games to make picks on. Adam and I disagree on seven of them. He didn't have an opportunity to write any commentary this week, but he did send me his official picks last night. Let's get to it!

2014-15 NCC Basketball Preview

I've been looking forward to this for months now. No, really.

That schedule has since changed around a little bit, so Friday begins another campaign at my old stomping grounds. This year, I have a new task: I will be the public address announcer for both the men's and women's basketball teams at North Central. That means more nights at Merner, but it's something I love to do, and I have the support behind me to do it.

Today, I'm going to look at both teams' expectations for the coming year, and take a look at whose names I will be calling a lot over the next few months, and how I think they will fare as they prepare for the gauntlet that is CCIW basketball.

2014 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 13

With me running a day late on college football stuff this week, I'm behind by a couple games this week. Last night, there were a pair of MAC games, which fortunately doesn't impact this metric.

There will be a fair amount of non-conference games in this week as teams wind down their regular seasons. The next couple weeks will see some major non-conference games to finish out slates, as well as defining games to determine division or conference championships. Unfortunately, for some teams, this is also an opportunity to be complete and utter cowards of the highest caliber. You probably know who I'm referring to.

If you want to refer back to last week's numbers, you can view them here. Let's see how this week looks.

2014 Death to the BCS Playoffs: Week 12 Edition

We're about two or three hours ahead of the committee, even with a day delay.

The Committee and I diverged a little bit with our rankings last week, as they overcame any signs of SEC bias and gave TCU the fourth spot. I have no love for the SEC, but based on every metric, save Non Conference Schedule Strength (because the SEC are a bunch of pansies who think I'm too stupid to argue with their "Our schedule is so tough, we need the late FCS games!" argument), the SEC is the best conference. Looking at our Playoff Points metric this week proved it.

We'll use those, plus some other metrics to fill out the 16-team field. Each of the ten FBS conferences will have its champion automatically in, while the rest of the field is filled by at large teams. To figure out who's in, we use Non-Conference Schedule Strength (NCSS) to loosely determine whose schedules have been tougher. To a greater degree, I use the aforementioned Playoff Points (PP1 and PP2) metrics to see who each team has beaten and figure out how good they really are. To keep the field from being dominated too much by any bias I may have, I also use computer rankings derived from formulas created by Jeff Sagarin (SAG) and the late David Rothman (ROTH).

Let's see how the playoffs would shake out if the season ended today.

2014 NCAA Playoff Points Rankings: Week 12

After a day delay from going to a fight and seeing a hockey game break out, I'm back to look at college football.

I'm also a little disappointed today. Division III announced its playoff field on Sunday, and unfortunately, North Central didn't make the field. At 8-2, they were kind of a long shot, so I can understand them not making it. Instead, I get to watch Wheaton represent the CCIW by beating the stuffing out of Benedictine, then root like hell against them because they stole the Bell. (Rightfully won, but whatever).

In the FBS ranks, a lot of chaos ensued and we're down to only two undefeated teams. That will cause some changes in the Death to the BCS Playoffs, which saw some difference with the College Football Playoff Selection Committee. Most of the damage stayed within conference boundaries, though there were some significant games out of conference as well. Last week's numbers will see some changes, but will the rankings be any different?

You can refer back to how Playoff Points work here. Let's run the numbers.

Game Notes: Dallas Stars @ Chicago Blackhawks (11/16/14)

Final Score

Blackhawks 6, Stars 2

Game Summary

Patrick Kane doing Patrick Kane things.

In the final game at the Madhouse before going on their annual Circus Trip, the Blackhawks (10-7-1) started fairly well with some good pressure and some pretty passing got them on the board first. Dallas (6-8-4) answered back a couple minutes later to tie it with some consistent presence in the Hawks' end, and added another shortly after. The Hawks woke up from there, helped by Andrew Shaw beating the crap out of Antoine Roussel. A couple minutes later, the power play got going and the Hawks tied it up. The second period was pretty uneventful, and the Hawks struggled a bit, but Crawford made a great glove save and a Star just missed an open net to keep the game tied at two after two. In the third, the Hawks came out firing again, taking the lead about five minutes in and just pouring it on from there.

Three Stars

3. Brad Richards (CHI): 2 A, 5 SOG, +3. Richards was honored before the game tonight, the 1000th of his career. He made it one to remember with his wife, baby, and parents in attendance. He fed Kane for the go-ahead goal early in the third, and added another helper on Versteeg's goal that made it 5-2 Hawks. 

2. Duncan Keith (CHI): 1 G, 1 A, 4 SOG, +1. Keith played pretty well on both ends of the ice, making some good defensive plays to help Crawford out. He also made a great cut to the net and put home a beautiful pass from Patrick Kane.

1. Patrick Kane (CHI): 1 G, 2 A, 3 SOG, +3. Kaner had himself a good night. He had that gorgeous pass to Keith on a break to the net to open the scoring, then set up the blast from the point that Seabrook hammered home to tie it. Kane went on to score the game-winner, shooting from a tough angle up over Kari Lehtonen.

Final Thoughts

I'd say Kristen and I picked a good game to go to. We went with her cousin Laura and her boyfriend Steve, not realizing it was Richards' 1000th game until we got there, and it's probably the best game Kristen and I have been to. Patrick Kane is Kristen's favorite player, so to see him have a great game was a plus. Toews scored too, which was nice, and I don't remember if we've been to a game where both have scored. 

The anthem was great, as always. To me though too, there's something magical about 21,000-plus people singing the chorus to Chelsea Dagger in unison, especially that many times. All in all, a good way to send the team off leading up to that long road trip.

COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em Week 11

We're up and at it again!

After consistently good weeks, I finally stumbled in Week 10 action. Yet somehow, I still ended up with a better record than Adam. It was another close split in disputed games, with me ending up taking four of the seven and extending my lead to 13 games with seven weeks to go. Obviously, that's not safe, since Adam could theoretically take a couple games off the top here and there and steal the season win in Week 17. Can he get the comeback started this week? Before we find out, Adam tells me he has a new strategy for the week:

"This is opposite week.  I am going to state my pick, explain my pick, but actually go the opposite way.  If I had done that all season, I would be killing it right now.  For example, Thursday night, I like Miami to cover.  I will explain why, but I will actually pick the Bills on ESPN."

To be fair, he did do an entire series of picks based solely on cheerleaders and went 8-5 doing so. Can't hurt to try something else.

We only have four byes this week, so there are 14 games to choose from. Adam and I disagree on a whopping ten of them. I'm curious to see how his strategy this week works. If it does, he could narrow that 13 game gap quite a bit.