Before the bowl games commenced for this past college football season, I made some predictions. Here, for your reading enjoyment, is the tally of those predictions. Note that the results are not in haiku form, in contrast to the predictions.

Results

Here is the list (correct predictions in green, incorrect in red):

Wyoming over Temple

Utah St. over Ohio

San Diego St. over Louisiana-Lafayette

Florida International over Marshall

TCU over Louisiana Tech

Boise St. over Arizona St.

Southern Miss. over Nevada

Missouri over North Carolina

Purdue over Western Michigan

NC State over Louisville

Air Force over Toledo

Texas over Cal

Notre Dame over Florida St.

Baylor over Washington

Tulsa over Brigham Young

Rutgers over Iowa St.

Miss. St. over Wake Forest

Oklahoma over Iowa

Northwestern over Texas A&M

Utah over Georgia Tech

Cincinnati over Vanderbilt

UCLA over Illinois

Virginia over Auburn

Houston over Penn St.

Michigan State over Georgia

Nebraska over South Carolina

Florida over Ohio St.

Oregon over Wisconsin

Stanford over Oklahoma St.

Michigan over Virginia Tech.

West Virginia over Clemson

Arkansas over Kansas St.

Pittsburgh over Southern Methodist

Northern Illinois over Arkansas St.

Louisiana St. over Alabama

And here are the results of the various forecasting methodologies (see the first year for description of the methodologies) (also, use the word methodologies if you want to sound important; methods would work just as well and is shorter) :

• Some Blog Site picks were 21-14 (better than last year!)
• CBS120 picks were 22-13
• HTW was 18-17 for the official Home Team Wins (HTW)
• HTW was 20-15 for the Geographical Home Team (GHT)
• Isaacson-Tarbell Postulate (ITP) was 21-14 if using HTW
• ITP was 22-13 if using GHT

I won’t analyze the results as much as I did last year, mainly because I had more time and more sleep last year. But it was a good year all predictors – every method was over 50%. And my predictions keep getting better. At this rate, I’ll be 100% correct by the year 2018.

Thoughts on the season’s results

1. That was a nice playoff round. Now let’s have the championship game between Alabama and OK State.
2. The B1G is going to have another championship game next year. We don’t know who will be in it, but we do know who won’t be in it…
3. You know what? – we should just skip the national championship game and give the title to the winner of the SEC again. I predicted as much last year, so let’s keep the streak going.

Conferences

Since the strength of the conference has something to do with the results, I thought I would tally each conference’s bowl game record for the 2011 (and the first bit of 2012) season.

• ACC: 2-6
• Big 10: 4-6
• Big 12: 6-2
• Big East: 3-2
• Independent: 1-1
• MAC: 4-1
• MW: 2-3
• PAC12: 2-5
• SEC: 6-3
• Sun Belt: 1-2
• USA: 4-1
• WAC: 0-3

So the best conference was the MAC or Conference USA (they won 80% of their bowl games) and the worst was the WAC because they didn’t win any of their bowl games.

The WAC sent the fewest teams to bowl games again this year (tied with Sun Belt). So maybe those two conferences were the worst.

Perhaps you could say that the B1G was the best because they had ten teams go to bowls. Or you could say the B1G was just the most popular conference.

Perhaps you could say that the SEC was the best because they won the championship (again). Or maybe the SEC is tied with the Big 12 for the best conference because they both won the most bowls (at 6).

I don’t know what happened to the MWC. They used to win their bowl games, and Boise St. was supposed to strengthen the conference. They ended below 0.500 in bowls this year though.

Since the conferences are going to change slightly for next football season, who knows which the strong bowl conferences will be? But if I must predict, I’m saying Conf. USA won’t win 80% of its bowl games again. I’ll also throw in the standard prediction that the SEC will win the BCS again.

Disclaimer: If you don’t follow the NFL, this post won’t make much sense. If you want it to make sense, please read this article about Ndamukong Suh first.

Now that the Lions’ season is over, the players can relax and pursue their hobbies during the off-season. And for Lions #90, that hobby is off-Broadway shows. Not just watching them, but participating as a cast member.

In fact, Some Blog Site was able to procure an advance copy of the promotional literature for Suh’s upcoming show. Here, exclusive to Some Blog Site, are the flyers.

The 2011 NFL season is over, and here are the most accurate methods for predicting regular-season game results:

• MPW: 66%
• ITP: 65%
• DPE: 64%

This year saw the addition of DP and DPE to the prediction methods. “DP” stands for Davis Postulate and contends that the team that will win is the team that has been winning. While they put up a good fight, they are still no match for the combination of MPW and MYW. (For the ideas behind the methods, please visit the Some Fun Site page.)

Plus I know my youngest brother thinks there aren’t enough playoff proposals, so I’m adding mine to the mix. I’m sure he will appreciate it.

Introducing:

Some Plan for College Football Playoffs

• Step 1: Combine some conferences so that there will be 8 conferences.
  This step is slightly muddy, because I’m arranging the current conferences without taking this year’s planned changes into account.
  But the overall goal should be achievable.
  • ACC – currently 12 teams. Adds 4 teams to become a 16-team conference. The 4 teams come from half the Big East.
  • Big 12 – currently 10 teams. Adds 6 teams to become a 16-team conference (yet keeps its name). The 6 teams come from the entire West division of Conference USA
  • Big Ten – currently 12 teams. Adds 2 teams to become a 14-team conference (yet keeps its name). The 2 teams come from the Big East (Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, in case you’re wondering).
  • MAC – currently 13 teams. Adds 1 team to become a 14-team conference. The 1 team comes from the East division of Conference USA.
  • MWAC – currently 16 teams. This new conference just combines the 8-team Mountain West Conference with the 8-team Western Athletic Conference.
  • PAC 12 – currently 12 teams. Not scheduled to get any new teams. Maybe it could take 2 teams from the MWAC.
  • SEC – currently 12 teams. Adds 4 teams to become a 16-team conference. The 4 teams come from East division of Conference USA (3 of them) and the Big East (1 of them).
  • Sun Belt – currently 9 teams. Adds 3 teams to become a 12-team conference. The 3 teams come from East division of Conference USA (2 of them) and the Big East (1 of them). May need to rename this one to something ending in ‘C’. I’ll propose GSC for Gulf-South Conference.

  Of course, the 16-team conferences might to share with the other conferences so that everyone has 14 or 15 teams. Or maybe not.

• Step 2: Every conference must have a championship game.

  The championship game becomes the first round of playoffs, so there are 16 teams right there. One of them has to be the best in the country. If they aren’t the best in their conference, they can’t be the best in the country.

• Step 3: Change the major bowl games to quarter-final playoff games.

  This would maintain the importance and tradition of the bowl games.

  • Rose Bowl – Currently PAC12 vs. Big Ten. Stays that way. Everyone is happy.
  • Fiesta Bowl – Currently BIG12 vs. ???. Adds the MWAC.
  • Sugar Bowl – Currently SEC vs. ???. Adds the MAC.
  • Orange Bowl – Currently ACC vs. ???. Adds the GSC.
• Step 4: Change other bowl games to semi-final playoff games.

  This would maintain the importance of the bowl games.

  • Cotton Bowl – Currently BIG12 vs. SEC. Stays that way. Everyone is happy. Would need to add MWAC and MAC into the mix, in case BIG12 or SEC lost.
  • Citrus Bowl – Currently Big Ten vs. SEC. Can’t stay that way. Too bad. Changing to Big Ten or PAC12 vs. ACC or GSC.
• Step 5: Keep the championship game rotating among the 4 major bowl games.

  This would placate the people who like the current BCS format. All 3 of them.

  And it would be the concession they want in order to agree to be the quarterfinal round instead of the semifinal round.

There.

That wasn’t so hard, right?

I’m looking at you, NCAA.

Oh, right…the schedule.

• Conference championship games are the first weekend in December.
• Quarterfinals are the second weekend in December.
• Semifinals are the fourth weekend in December.
• The championship game is the Saturday after New Year’s Day.

I don’t care as much about the schedule. They can keep the games on separate nights like they do today.

The main thing I care about it that the contract does not go to ESPN. It must remain with the over-the-air broadcasters so that regular Americans can watch.

I don’t have fancy-schmancy satellite TV or cable or streaming internet, and I would like to watch the bowl games.

I see that Tim Tebow has lined up some endorsement deals. However, none of them really captures the spirit of his name. What inspired this post wasn’t an actual endorsement deal. Rather, it was a brewery that named a beer after Tim Tebow, kind of.

I don’t know if that’s the best choice, pairing a beer with a Baptist, but here are some other marketing deals that would be interesting:

1. Tim Tivo: This one should be obvious. Comes pre-loaded with footage of all the Broncos’ 4th-quarter comebacks.

2. Tim Teabow: Not as obvious as the Tivo, but still promising.
   Lipton? No.
   Celestial Seasonings? Close.
   Snapple? Yes – if I have to explain the connection between football and the name “Snapple”, then you’re not going to get it anyway.

   Types of Tea:

   • Rookie Tea – formerly known as Green Tea
   • Golong Tea – Oolong’s football equivalent
   • ??? – what others are there?

3. Tim T. Rowe (Price): financial management company. Not sure what it has to do with football though.

4. Tim Temow: lawn care company. I know the name’s shaky, but I’m running out of steam.

5. Tim Treebow: tree-cutting service. This one’s a stretch too, but it goes nicely with Temow.

I’d better stop there, as I am apparently out of ideas.

Any better match-ups out there?

These are listed in order of date (earliest first). Some picks are whom I think will win, and some picks are whom I want to win. I’ll leave it to you, the reader, to decide which is which.

Dec. 17th

Dec. 20th

Dec. 21st

Dec. 22nd

Dec. 24th

Dec. 26th

Dec. 27th

Dec. 28th

Dec. 29th

Dec. 30th

Dec. 31st

Jan. 1st

Jan. 2nd

Jan. 3rd

Jan. 4th

Jan. 6th

Jan. 7th

Jan. 8th

Jan. 9th

And that’s it for this year’s BCS and non-BCS bowl game predictions. Tune in later, about the second week of January, for the results show.

First off, Wes Molebash needed a font, so he got one. Actually, it was not just one, but two fonts – a normal font and a bold version.

Then, motivated by Wes’ fonts and inspired by pro football, we made an imitation font (caution: contains font-like substance).

Three guesses as to which NFL team’s logo inspired this font.
Hint: it’s called Wayne Fonts.

If you want to use it, go download it.

1. I am not a fan of rematches for championships. I don’t care if Alabama is ranked second in the country – we already know they are worse than LSU. If you don’t win your conference, why should you be in the championship game? Think of the conference championship games as a playoff round to get into the national championship game.

   Let some other team have a crack at LSU.

2. If Alabama does play LSU and wins, all that will do is tie the series at 1-1 and we will need a tiebreaker.

   If they do play, I will be cheering for LSU. Partly because of the head coaches (+ for Les Miles, – for Nick Saban) and partly because I want the people who decided to put Alabama in the championship game to regret it. I’ve already seen that game; I want a different one.

3. Same with MSU-Wisconsin. This is a vote against having cross-division games in the conference.

   Hey B1G, add a few more teams to the conference so each division will have 8 members and then we won’t have to contend with this scenario anymore.

4. On a related note: since Wisconsin lost to various teams (including MSU) by Hail Marys Hail Maries hail Mary passes, everyone knows that is their weakness.

   If I were running MSU, I’d throw a few deep passes to start the game. Get ahead early.

5. That Michigan game was closer than I would have liked. And OSU falls to 6-6. Maybe they would have done better this year if they hadn’t hired Adam Sandler as their coach.

   

   Not that I want them doing better or anything.

The main thing is that I appreciate good spectators. Whether it’s a 5k, 10k, half marathon, or full marathon, it’s nice to have people cheering.

What prompted this was the spectator who yelled “Run faster!” to me.

I assume she meant well and wasn’t trying to taunt me. But her words were less than encouraging. So here are my thoughts on how to cheer for a runner.

Tips on Cheering

• Don’t offer advice.

  Telling me how to run doesn’t help. Unless we have both agreed that you’re my coach, do not critique me.

  “Run faster” and “Go pass that guy” fall into this category.

• Do give information.

  If I were a more serious runner, I would have a fancy watch that tells me my time and my pace and my splits. But I don’t have that, so I appreciate people who yell out split times at the mile markers.

  “Stay to the left on the trail” and “Watch out for the [insert hazard here] at the next block” also fall into this category.

• Do give generic platitudes.

  As a general spectator at a race in your community, you don’t know me. And I know that you don’t know me. But there are some who make the extra effort. At my 10k the local football team had some responsibilities on the course, and they were very good at looking at bib numbers and cheering specifically for people by their numbers.

  “Looking good” and “Nice shoes” also fall into this category.
  I don’t know that “good job” falls into this category, since you don’t know my goal for the race so you can’t know how well (or poorly) I’m doing.
  “Yea” should work though, and “Go team” might make me smile.

Those apply to general spectators – how to cheer for people you don’t know. If you do know me, then cheer however you feel you should.

Other Notes from the Race

• Best Local Resident

  The person who set up a hose and sprinkler so that it sprays part of the road. Runners who want to can keep right and get a refreshing splash of water; runners who are not so inclined can keep left and avoid it.

• Worst Part of the Race

  The finish was awful. The last half mile or so was slightly uphill and directly facing the setting sun.

  If you’re planning a race, the finish should be flat or slightly downhill and the runners should be able to see.

• Worst Feeling in the Race

  At the start of the race, I heard all the beeps of chips crossing the timing mat. As soon as I crossed the starting line, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach because I did not remember tying any chip to my shoe.

  Then I looked at my bib and remembered that the chip is built into the bib and there wasn’t supposed to be anything on my shoe, so I was fine. But I was about to panic.

• Start in the Middle of the Pack

  That way you get to pass people during the race. I find that better motivation than starting near the front and being passed throughout the race.

  Don’t go too far though – starting at the back of the pack means that you spend too much time dodging people.

• Last Note from the Race

  Halfway through the 10k, just after the 5k runners finished but the 10k-ers continued, I was about 20 yards behind a guy. He looked pretty slow – I thought maybe he had gone out too fast for the first half and was dying now (figuratively speaking).

  I figured I would pass him and then concentrate on passing the next guy. After a couple of blocks, I realized that I wasn’t getting any closer to the slow-looking guy.

  Then I realized what that meant – “Do I look that slow too? I bet I do.” I never see how I look when I run, but that guy was at a slow jog. “Surely I’m not like that.” But I was, at least until that point. I made an effort to lengthen my strides slightly, and I passed him a couple of blocks later.

  I’m sure there’s some life application to be made here, but I’ll leave that as an exercise for the reader.

I’m sure that was an exciting post for you non-runners. And if you thought this post was boring, try watching a half-marathon.

What’s the best amusing generic phrase to yell to cheer on a runner?

Mine is “Defense!”

Before my race, I was wondering things like “What are the obstacles going to be like?” and “What should I be doing to get ready for Warrior Dash?”

The official WD website said basically not to worry about the obstacles and just be able to run a 5k. It used to say something like “run as far as you can” for training. It looks like they have updated it since then, and now it has an official plan. It has a running part and a strength training part, but no obstacle part. That’s where I come in.

Run Intervals

But I’m trying to keep this generic. Everyone knows you should be running, of course. Here are the other things that you should be practicing:

Practice Climbing

Practice Pulling

Practice Crawling

Practice Over-and-Under Stuff

Practice Water Running

That’s all!

Now you’re ready for Warrior Dash.

No, I didn’t do all that in my training. I just did running and chin-ups.
But that was before I experienced a Warrior Dash.