Sports

Its that time of the week again. BCS rankings have just come out and controversy has muddled everything. Oklahoma jumped Texas to take over #2 and the Sooners are now headed to the Big XII Championship game. Oregon State lost, all but ensuring USC will be heading to Pasedena, and what about Boise State? Without further adieu…

National Championship: Oklahoma (BCS #1) v. Florida (BCS #2) – Everything worked out for OU. Even though they lost to Texas in October, the Sooners are still headed to Kansas City to play a Missouri team that just lost to unranked Kansas. Florida locked up the SEC East a couple weeks ago and looked just plain dominant against Florida State. They will be tested against Alabama, but the Gators look pretty unbeatable right now.

After a rough week, here is the third installment of Shameless Sunday Picks :

San Francisco (+7) at Buffalo Bills : Take the Bills – 7

Teams traveling to the East Coast to the West Coast and playing in a 1:00 game are collectively 0-13 this season. This, coupled with the performance of each team last week should be a clear indicator that the Bills will come out victorious. The bills played well last week and scored a lot of points. I don’t think today will be any different. Trent Edwards is regaining confidence and Marshawn Lynch is a solid back. Their D has played well at times and outside of Frank Gore, the 49ers’ offense has been pretty erratic.

Bills 34 – 49ers 13

Carolina Panthers (+3) at Green Bay Packers : Take the Packers – 3

Everything and nothing happened on Saturday in the college football world. We even had some college football hot stove action as far as coaching is concerned. For a late season week, we had a lot of action. Unfortunately, if you like Penn State, USC, or even Utah, you can probably kiss your national championship hopes goodbye. As far as the the rankings and BCS? Well…..we’ll get to that.

I saw this a week or so ago and found it hard to believe then, but now it’s popped up again, so I thought I’d share. A couple of weeks back, New Orleans Saints owner had left a fleet of cars at the team’s facility in an attempt to try and sell them to the players. Some players were not happy about this and apparently smeared poop on the vehicles. The story has been confirmed and you can read it here: http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008/11/28/saints-poop-on-car-story-confi.... Of course the Saints won their game after this happened and it was speculated whether or not the players would do it again to keep their streak going. It is Week 13…

Really, is there any reason for him to stay?

Amare Stoudemire recently told Stephen A. Smith that he wanted to be considered what LeBron James is to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Dwyane Wade is to the Miami Heat, etc. In other words, he wants to be “the Man” on his team.

If anybody saw Amare’s 49 point performance against the Indiana Pacers, you know that he has the ability to be “the Man”. He definitely has the talent to become one of the elite players in the NBA. In fact, he is beginning to be mentioned right along with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade when people talk about the Summer of LeBron in 2010. Unfortunately for Suns fans, he is more likely to leave than people think.

Today is a day where men around the U.S. recognize their ceramic paradises and cherish the one place in their home where they can get a two minute break (sometimes 15) from cleaning the ceiling fan or winterizing the house. If some are wondering where this beautiful day got its namesake, let’s just say this is the one day where the FDIC couldn’t insure every deposit made nationally for fear of insolvency. Additionally, If anyone is interested in the National Conference, it is being held in the Chicagoland Marriott and is being hosted by Al Bundy, a renowned women’s shoe salesman in the nearby area.

Now to the viewers guide:

12:05 – The Backyard Brawl (Pitt (+3) vs. West Virginia)- ABC

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. At this point, I’m sure there are some of you who have already started shopping (some places opened their doors at midnight; others at 4:00am; I chose to sleep in until 5:30).

While Thanksgiving was a super one for my household, there were some in the sports world who just had to ruin it. Therefore, I wanted to list my 2008 Thanksgiving Turkeys:

-Stephon Marbury. He has now twice refused to play when the NY Knicks asked them to. Granted, the Knicks put themselves in this mess by benching him. However, the Knicks are already depleted by injuries and are down to two guards. If there is any justice, not only will Marbury be released, but no one will pick him up.

I believe ESPN called last week rivalry week (if I’m wrong, they can use their new found BCS money to sue me. They just don’t know half of nothing is still nothing…unless it’s the BCS). But in looking at this week’s games, some of college football’s best rivalries take place this weekend.

Some interesting rule changes will be implemented coming into this year’s 2008 NFL season. Curious as to what you guys think of these new changes made. The following rule changes were passed at the league’s annual owners meeting in Palm Beach, Florida during the week of March 31.

Oftentimes in the news we hear things that make us shake our heads and go “huh”? You know…random things like Dennis Rodman wearing a bridal outfit to a book signing or Roseanne Barr being considered a “wise” choice to let sing a National Anthem during a game. Oftentimes teams or individual star players make decisions or act in a way that just leave you wondering “what in the world were they smoking” as their tactics or decisions seem to backfire in their faces.

Here are three such events in particular that got me saying “whaa?”

1) Shawne Merriman Opting to Play the Entire 2008 NFL Season Without Surgery

As you no doubt have heard, Shawne Merriman of the San Diego Chargers has chosen to forgo surgery on his left knee in order to play football this season. He has two torn ligaments: the posterior cruciate and lateral collateral ligaments, and four separate doctors have advised him to pack it in for the season and have surgery, otherwise he risks career-ending damage to the knee. Merriman says his decision comes from a pact he made, a goal to compete at the highest level and help the Chargers win the Superbowl this season. I admire his courage, but as someone who has personally torn two ligaments in his left knee I want to tell Merriman that he is an idiot.

With two weeks left in the regular season, there are plenty of intriguing stories in the NL West: Manny in Los Angeles, the sudden Diamondback collapse, and the recent surge by the Giants (winning 8 of 9 before their recent sweep at the hands of the DBacks), to name a few.

Very nice stories, but I have my eye on the bittersweet Padres. San Diego currently has the second worst record in Major League Baseball, percentage points behind the Seattle Mariners. They currently are on pace to finish no worse than the Washington Nationals.

What’s the relevance? The Padres are preparing to open up a three game set in DC. As a fan, I can’t bear the thought of my beloved Friars falling to the sorry Nationals. I’d love nothing more than for my San Diego squad to tear through their last nine games, taking momentum into the offseason, perhaps convincing the front office that this team isn’t nearly as bad as its record would indicate. But…

This is going to be a very interesting NLDS series because of two players: the Phillies’ slugger Ryan Howard and Milwaukee ace CC Sabathia. Both are arguably the hottest players at their positions right now over the last month, with Howard has 11 home runs, 32 RBI’s and a ridiculous .851 slugging percentage for the month of september, and Sabathia is 11-2 for the Brewers with a slick 1.61 ERA. It is unlikely that Sabathia will be used in game 1 because he would be pitching on two days rest, but game 2 is almost a given because the Brewers plan is to run him in game 5 if it goes that far.

With the conclusion(???) of the Brett Favre-Green Bay Packers soap opera the other night and his official press conference for new team NY Jets, I find myself wondering why I was exposed to a sportswriters’ cornucopia of status updates on everything that went down. Clearly, someone on either the broadcasting or receiving end likes to follow Favre like a Facebook stalker or tabloid journal reader. Frankly, it annoyed me more than any sports-related saga this year like the Branjolina or Bennifer articles I was forced to observe at every grocery checkout stand I visited during that episode. America is sick with star-obsession and seems determined to live their lives through reality television shows and the latest sporting melodramas. This General Hospital: Green Bay was frustrating, but does it earn a spot atop my list of most annoying sports stories?

I’ve rounded up some links for you all to watch this fight, both on SopCast and on live streaming through Windows Media Player. All you need is a relatively fast connection and you’ll be watching these fights free! You won’t want to miss tonight’s UFC 86 card that features light heavyweight champ Quentin “Rampage” Jackson taking on #4 contender in the UFC, Forrest Griffin!

Here’s how to watch on SopCast

1. Download Sopcast player if you haven’t already: (www.sopcast.org)

2. Cut, paste the following link, which will open your sopcast player:

sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/24267

Alternatively, watch on Windows Media Player (although typically not as good quality as SopCast). Try the following links til you get a good one, as service is sometimes spotty:

One of the best MMA cards all year will be on tap this Saturday, August 9th brought to you by UFC. The fights start at 10 PM EST/7 PM PST. Check out this main card:

• Welterweight Championship bout: Jon Fitch vs. Georges St. Pierre*
• Lightweight bout: Kenny Florian vs. Roger Huerta*
• Heavyweight bout: Brock Lesnar vs. Heath Herring*
• Lightweight bout: Manny Gamburyan vs. Rob Emerson*
• Middleweight bout: Jason MacDonald vs. Demian Maia*

Loaded, right? Yes, I thought you’d agree! Here’s how to watch.

On sopcast (download the player and watch, usually better quality than streaming links). Download the player here: http://sopcast.org/download

Great card on for tonight as it’s BJ Penn vs. Sean Sherk for the lightweight title. Also in action are Wanderlei Silva vs. Keith Jardine and Lyoto Machida vs. Tito Ortiz. Don’t miss it! The card begins at 7 PM PST/10 PM EST.

You can watch generally in one of two ways: 1) live stream on Windows Media Player or 2) through a peer-to-peer application such as SopCast (download Sopcast at sopcast.org).

Here are some Media Player links that might work:
www.justin.tv/ufc_fan
www.justin.tv/mmatv

SopCast links:

After downloading sopcast, tune it to channel 24267 or just go here:
sop://broker1.sopcast.com:3912/24267

I’ll check back later to make any updates or edits to this information! Enjoy the fights, all!

If you want to watch WWE: No Way Out, please check back later. I’ll have to confirm if the channel is right or not and I’ll post it. Cross your fingers! I’ll be back.

This will be one tremendous fight! Dubbed “The Battle” it pits undefeated welterweight champ Miguel Cotto against the Mexican warrior Antonio Margarito. It’s one of the most anticipated welterweight fights in recent history. The action starts at 6 PM PST/9 PM EST. Here’s where you can watch online (try the links and see which one works best for you):

MMA Fans w/o PPV, you can still enjoy UFC 82: Henderson vs Silva by tuning into a live online stream. The action begins @ 10pm EST/ 7pm PST. You are only two easy steps away:

1. Download the Sopcast Player from http://www.sopcast.org or from here http://www.download.com/SopCast/3000-13632_4-10601520.html
2. Turn to channel 24267
3. Enjoy!