Dan Shanoff

01/27 (Friday) Quickie

2012-01-27T10:47:00.004-05:00

Peyton Manning vs. Jim Irsay: The cynic in me thinks that this is orchestrated to minimize the damage stemming from the inevitability of Peyton leaving/the Colts booting him.

But I suspect I overestimate the machinations of even the canny Manning and the loony Irsay.

What should be obvious to everyone -- and welcome to Colts fans -- is that the Colts should dump Manning, replacing his injured neck* and his massive salary for a spry, ready-to-takeover Andrew Luck and his reasonable rookie deal.

* - I'm baffled that reporters and fans think that a free-agent Manning is something to seek out. There is no evidence that he will be ready to return to NFL form (let alone Manning form!) next season. In fact, until proven otherwise, he is less useful than a backup QB, who at least could take a hit without worrying you'll break his neck. I wouldn't sign Manning, even if I was the most QB-depleted team in the league. And that's not even considering what he'll demand in costs.

I appreciate that Colts fans are attached to Manning. I also hope THEY appreciate that few teams ever get such an obvious, easy and affordable succession plan -- there will be no awkward situation where the expensive vet continues to start while the future sits and waits (and perhaps pouts). If the Colts didn't have Luck lined up, perhaps it would be a different conversation. But they do, and that means they have the ideal replacement -- immediately -- for Manning. I suspect most Colts fans are nostalgic about Manning leaving but absolutely thrilled about Luck.

Let's put it this way: If you asked most Colts fans what they would rather have -- Manning coming off a career-threatening neck injury that has yet to be proven he is healed from (at $26 million) or rookie Luck in full health and as ready to start immediately in the NFL as any college QB in the history of the sport (and at a bargain rate) -- they would take Luck.

Please give Quickish a look today, and thanks for your continued support. Have a great weekend.

-- D.S.

01/26 (Paterno) Quickie

2012-01-26T12:28:00.002-05:00

The public memorial for Joe Paterno is today. Best thing I've read about Paterno in the last 24 hours is Wright Thompson's walk-around with Jay Paterno.

If you are following the Paterno story, I'd also recommend Jonathan Mahler's just-published Kindle Single "Death Comes to Happy Valley." Well worth the $1.99.

More:

*Greg Schiano leaves Rutgers for the Bucs: It's the Northwestern alum and Gary Barnett fan in me that thinks that it is infinitely harder to turn around a historically wretched college football program than it is to steer the ship at an existing or underperforming traditional winner. I appreciate that college coaches going to the NFL is, aside from Harbaugh, an iffy proposition. I think Schiano becomes one of the exceptions and does well.

*Colts hire Ravens DC Chuck Pagano: He gets the cushion of being the Colts' first coach in the post-Peyton era AND the benefit of starting that era with the most NFL-ready college QB of the last 30 years (which includes Peyton). Good hire by the Colts.

*Nadal beats Federer: A great match, one that started live at 3:30 a.m. ET, making it all the more fun to watch (if you were willing to get up and sneak peeks in between hitting the snooze button), particularly that it concluded during breakfast.

*The most interesting result in the NBA last night: The Cavs beating the Knicks by 10. The Knicks are terrible -- even worse given the expectations set up by importing Carmelo and Amare. Is it possible that Knicks fans feel even worse than Wizards fans? (Yes!)

*Hot Stove: Lidge to Nats. The Nationals might have missed out on Prince Fielder, but they shored up an already potent young bullpen by signing Brad Lidge, who will provide a steady veteran presence and put the bullpen in the Top 3 in the NL. With a solid top 3 in the rotation (Strasburg, Zimmermann, Gonzalez) and a 'pen that is lights out if the starters can take a lead through 6 innings, the Nats look like a darkhorse playoff team in '12.

*College hoops last night: So much for the Mizzou bandwagon. That lasted all of -- what? -- 5 days. Losing at Oklahoma State -- motivated beyond belief -- doesn't mean that Mizzou isn't fiesty enough to make the Final Four. But it IS one of those losses that makes you wonder when you're deciding if Mizzou makes it through the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight.

-- D.S.

01/25 (Garyland) Quickie

2012-01-25T15:48:00.002-05:00

Another day in my new life in DC, another big sports event here I won't be attending in person. This time it is tonight's Gary Williams court dedication at Maryland.

Like all my rooting interests, I have a complicated relationship with Maryland. I grew up a huge Maryland basketball fan -- Len Bias was and will always be my favorite player ever. I was 13 when he died. The next few years were spent in the purgatory of Bob Wade, then the NCAA sanctions. Then Gary Williams arrived -- I was 16.

By the time I was mostly through college, Williams had resuscitated the program, mining Baltimore for top prospects willing to bring Maryland back to glory: Booth. Rhodes. Simpkins. The unexpectedly sublime game of Joe Smith. The foundation of what would come a half-dozen years later, when Maryland would push Duke to its limits in 2001, the Terps forging themselves into the team that would, in 2002, win the school's first and only national title. It was Gary Williams' finest achievement -- it was Maryland's finest sports moment.

From there, it was a slow descent over a decade to the sorry state of the program now -- certainly better than when Williams found it in the late-80s. But nowhere near where it was during the peak of his effort -- the mid-90s through that championship season.

Maryland basketball maintains a special place for me -- as does Gary Williams, for delivering that championship I don't think any fans ever thought would come. For a really good retrospective of Williams, check out this from just after he retired, by the Baltimore Sun's supremely talented columnist, Kevin Van Valkenburg.

-- D.S.

1/24 (Quicker) Quickie

2012-01-24T08:50:00.004-05:00

*Super Bowl lead-up: Yes, yes, we get it -- Pats-Giants Rematch. Boston-New York. Anyone else already sick of that storyline? Get used to it.

*Pop Culture: Oscar nominations came out this morning and "Moneyball" earning Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor noms make it the most Oscar-acclaimed baseball movie ever (and one of the most Oscar-acclaimed sports movies ever).

*Peyton Manning: Says he has no idea what's next. Says he's going to talk about it with Jim Irsay. Says he would like to stay but realizes he probably won't get to. More indications he's gone.

*Tim Thomas: Thomas has the right to do what he wants (and say what he wants). I think it's less disrespectful to the President (or the office of the President or even the American people who the President represents) than it is disrespectful to his teammates -- first, for putting his own interests ahead of the team's and not joining them, despite his reservations, and second, for creating a situation where everyone is ignoring what should be a great day for his team and teammates to concentrate exclusively on his unnecessarily inflammatory gesture and rhetoric.

*Wozniacki out in Australia: We can finally stop talking about her being the least-qualified No. 1 player in women's tennis history. She'll lose the ranking next week. (If you haven't been watching the Aussie Open, the upcoming Nadal-Federer semifinal will be your must-see.)

*CFB: Navy joining the Big East (three years from now). Good fit all around.

*Best Thing I Read Yesterday: SBNation's Spencer Hall on Joe Paterno, the best of the (largely, very good) Paterno retrospectives of the past 48 hours.

*Also Very Good: Slate's Stefan Fatsis -- who literally wrote the book on kickers in the NFL -- had an excellent (and spontaneous) three-part series about ill-fated Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff that had a surprise ending.

-- D.S.

01/23 (Too Much) Quickie

2012-01-22T22:56:00.003-05:00

RIP Joe Paterno: In the end, the child sexual-abuse scandal and dismissal made the first paragraph of Paterno's obituary, right alongside sweeping declarations about the scope and success of his legendary (if tarnished) career.

I'm left feeling bad for him that his final months were so painful -- while still reserving the right to begrudge him the way he handled the Sandusky situation. As fans, we can feel both things for him, and his legacy should consider both.

It remains a sad day for his family, for Penn State fans and for college football fans everywhere -- my condolences are with the Paternos and JoePa's vastly larger Penn State family.

*There is an incredible collection of Paterno obituaries, analysis and reflection at Quickish. Click here to check it out.

Super Bowl: Pats vs. Giants. Yes, the rematch. Yes, Tom Brady vs. Eli Manning. Yes, Bill Belichick against Tom Coughlin, who foiled the perfect season. And, yes, Boston versus New York, which should send the rest of the country scurrying for cover.

NFC: Giants escape San Francisco in OT. Others have said it, and it's worth repeating -- so the NFC title came down to the 49ers not having Ted Ginn available? This doesn't take away from Jim Harbaugh's first season as an NFL head coach -- the most brilliant NFL debut by a head coach in recent memory. The Giants put together the least impressive regular season of any team ever to get to the Super Bowl -- far less qualified than a 6-seed Wild Card like the Steelers a few years ago. Then again, the Giants have played brilliantly in the postseason and more than earned their way with wins over the Falcons, Packers and 49ers -- the final two on the road -- in consecutive weeks. They are worthy conference champs.

AFC: Ravens choke against the Pats. Let's stipulate that even if Billy Cundiff had made the field goal, there is no guarantee the Ravens win in OT. But let's say the win the toss, then kick a FG, then hold the Pats to a FG, then kick another FG. The point is that if you hate the Patriots, this was a tough loss. But if you like the idea that the league's best coach and the league's best QB earned their way back into the Super Bowl for the 5th time in the past decade with a win over a very good conference foe, you're happy enough. (But you're probably feeling a bit like you did a few years ago -- hoping they'll lose to the Giants in an upset.)

*Again, there is an incredible collection of NFL analysis this morning at Quickish. Click here to check it out.

CFB: Oregon's Chip Kelly reportedly leaving for NFL's Bucs, then flips around and stays at Oregon. As a Florida fan, this is reminiscent of when Billy Donovan left after the back-to-back championships for the Magic, only to come back to Florida the next day. Kelly didn't go quite that far -- his interest in the NFL is clear (I think he'd be an excellent NFL coach, way more Harbaugh than Spurrier), but he's got a good thing going in Eugene... arguably as good of a thing as any coach in the country, including Saban at Alabama (which feels like the gold standard). Too bad for the Bucs -- great news for college football in '12, where the budding Oregon-USC rivalry should be the marquee showdown of the season.

College hoops this weekend: I watched most of Mizzou's win over Baylor in Waco, and I'm ready to hop on the Tigers' bandwagon as a very legitimate Final Four team, size issues be damned.

-- D.S.

01/20 (NFL Final Four) Quickie

2012-01-20T12:15:00.003-05:00

Let's get right to it: The Pats will beat the Ravens and the 49ers will beat the Giants.

Now that the Quickie Jinx is in effect, let's dig in:

*Obviously, I'm not rooting for the Patriots -- admiration for Bill Belichick aside -- and as weak as the Pats' D might be, I can't see the Ravens keeping up with Brady and the triple-threat of Welker-Gronk-Hernandez. Then again, there's always 2009 to look to for inspiration.

*I've come around on these 49ers -- by far the most likeable team left in the field (and perhaps, in hindsight, the most likeable team in the entire league this season), if only for the combination of storylines of Jim Harbaugh's brilliant rookie year and Alex Smith's validation.

Both games should be fun (if impossible to match last week's Saints-49ers game), and it feels like the only one of the four possible outcomes that would have fans grumbling is a Ravens-Giants Super Bowl repeat. (It really shouldn't, because a Super Bowl title for Lewis and Reed to end their careers would be thrilling, and it's fascinating to think that the Giants could have the weakest regular season of any NFL champ in history.)

Enjoy.

-- Dan

01/19 (Wizards!) Quickie

2012-01-19T10:44:00.004-05:00

As a lifelong Wizards fan, there are only a handful of great moments I can point to. Signing Bernard King was a fun one. Trading for Chris Webber was a great one. (Trading him away for Mitch Richmond, not so much.) Signing Gilbert Arenas (before things went... y'know.)

Two summers ago, when the Wizards won the John Wall Lottery, that was the closest thing I had ever experienced to the ecstasy of a championship with this team, which otherwise had given me so much frustration over the years -- no year more than this one, when the "rebuild" seemed like a vacant foreclosure.

This season, the Wizards started with one win in their first baker's dozen of games -- by far the worst record in the NBA, but even worse, the Wiz gave the worst effort in the NBA. Andray Blatche is the worst. JaVale McGee is a knucklehead. Nick Young and Jordan Crawford shoot way too much. John Wall's body language suggested he was serving time.

Last night, the Thunder -- the model of how a winning team is built from the ground up and an odds-on favorite to win the West (if not an NBA championship) -- came to town and I fully expected Oklahoma City to teach the Wizards a brutal lesson. After all, if the Timberwolves can shellack the Wiz by 20, the Thunder should be able to double that up, easy.

I scored a ticket to the game with a buddy; the seats were phenomenal. We settled in to watch the massacre. And yet... the Wiz kind of hung in there. They made the usual bone-headed mistakes and missed the usual litany of forced jumpshots -- but the rebounding was solid and the defense was relatively intense.

They kept it close at the half, then in the third quarter. Along the way, I noted that it's a moral victory even for the team to make it a game with the Thunder, even if they ended up losing. But as the Wiz took a tenuous lead, I shifted from the thrill of moral victory to realizing that when (not if) the Wiz lost this lead and this game, it would be the worst loss of them all.

With 90 seconds to go, the crowd got on its feet to will the Wizards to hang on to that lead, even as the Thunder seemed primed to come back, take the game to OT and claim the victory they clearly figured two hours earlier would be in the bag. It was the closest thing the 2011-2012 Wizards would get to a playoff atmosphere -- this felt like the team's championship, if they could just eke it out.

When Kevin Durant's desperate 3 to tie with a second to play rimmed out -- and I'll bet that 90% of the arena figured it was going to drop right in (I sure did) -- the Wiz claimed the most unlikely victory of the NBA season.

And a fan base that had been beaten down over the past dozen or so games by a team that seemed hapless and helpless got that flicker of joy that every other team's fans seem to get on a more regular basis (and certainly the playoff and Finals contenders get constantly).

Woefully low expectations are typically a huge problem -- they indicate that your team is going to be horrible. But in this case, it allowed for the thrill -- the genuine glee and surprise -- of watching the worst team in the league (your team) beat one of the best.

It was enough to keep me happy as a fan for the long losing season ahead.

More:

*Yu Darvish signs with the Rangers: When he ends up being something in between solid and spectacular, it will be an entirely reasonable signing. (It's unlikely Texas also makes a play for Prince Fielder, but I'd rather spend $150M on Prince than $100+ on Josh Hamilton.)

*"The Streak" ends: Trinity's 252-match squash winning streak -- the greatest streak in the history of college sports -- was snapped last night by rival Yale. Worth going back to read the New York Times Magazine profile of the team from last February.

*Parenting: This is a pretty good recap of solid parenting techniques, via Deadspin's Drew Magary.

Pop by Quickish today to keep up with the best takes on the biggest topics.

-- D.S.

01/17 (Moving On) Quickie

2012-01-17T08:30:00.003-05:00

Unless your team was knocked out, I think most fans are entirely satisfied with the NFL's conference-championship match-ups, particularly given the thrilling way we got to an NFC final.

Let's do a quick ranking of the four possible Super Bowls:
(1) Patriots-49ers. Great O, great D, two best coaches in football.
(2) Patriots-Giants. Rematch of the greatest Super Bowl upset ever.
(3) Ravens-49ers. The "Harbaugh Brothers" Bowl.
(4) Ravens-Giants. 50% off your Northeast Corridor Amtrak ticket?

I like the idea that it feels like the outcomes are fairly predictable -- Pats and 49ers, right? -- but if last week reminded us of anything, it's that predictable outcomes are there to be imploded.

More:

*Happy 70th birthday, Muhammad Ali. I think that if I had the chance to meet any athlete in the world, it would be Ali. What: You thought I'd say...

*Tim Tebow: More underminey rhetoric from John Elway, tabbing Tebow as the Broncos' "starting QB heading into training camp," making him the only QB among playoff teams (and more than half the non-playoff teams) to not be the clear-cut Week 1 starter.

Would it have been so bad if Elway had said "Tim is our Week 1 starter." Like anyone is going to hold Elway to it if something goes horribly awry in training camp. The worst part -- for everyone, including Elway -- is that most media took his qualified support as "Tebow is the starter next year!"

Let's all remember: If Tebow had lost his first game as a starter in Week 7, he would have been benched. Same with a loss in Week 9, Week 10 and Week 11 (and probably Weeks 12 or 13).

What continues to mystify me is that Elway and Fox seem scared to do what they want to do -- cut or trade Tebow -- because of what they presume would be a public outcry. They are waiting for him to fail on the field to give them the more air cover, even though they don't really believe in him as their long-term starting QB. Can you imagine Bill Belichick giving a crap what the fans or media have to say about how he runs his team?

*NBA on MLK Day: Good things happen for the Lakers when Kobe passes up the final contested shot to find an open teammate. Do we say the same thing if Derek Fisher misses that game-winning 3? Maybe not. But Fisher was a sub-20 percent 3-point shooter this season, but canned that one when he was wide open, thanks to the attention Kobe drew. One to grow on....

*Dwight Howard Watch: He's willing to play for the Clippers. Too bad the Clippers don't have anything reasonable to offer the Magic, except... would you trade Blake Griffin for Dwight Howard? Blake is a lot younger (and cheaper); Howard is even more elite. The question is: Is Chris Paul + Blake Griffin better than Chris Paul + Dwight Howard? I don't think so. In that case, I'd make the deal. (Obviously, the Magic would be THRILLED for that deal.) Then again, I'm one of the folks who thinks that the Heat would be better with Wade + Bosh + Howard than Wade + Bosh + LeBron. (Sigh: Think the Magic would take my Wizards' JaVale McGee for Howard? I'll take Dwight as a half-season rental at this point.)

*College Hoops: Did Kansas expose Baylor? Or did the Bears simply run into another elite team, playing at home, with a bit of pressure built up from being one of the handful of remaining unbeatens left in the country? I would like to see the rematch in the Big 12 Tournament. Meanwhile: KU's Tyshawn Taylor was the big scorer, but Thomas Robinson is outstanding.

Be sure to check out Quickish to catch up on what you might have missed yesterday and throughout the day today. Thanks for the continued support!

-- D.S.

01/16 (Giants, Wow) Quickie

2012-01-16T09:48:00.003-05:00

Hey, don't miss Quickish's NFL stream this morning, with some smart takes on yesterday's games.

The Packers were a great story this season -- a mini-dynasty (or standard version) in the making. The Giants waltzing into Lambeau and throttling them is an even better story, the kind of you-kind-of-hope-it-will-happen-but-don't-expect-it-to-happen result that makes sports fun. (As compared to, say, Tom Brady's evisceration of Tebow and the Broncos on Saturday night, which was -- lamentably -- entirely predictable and without much of any shade of doubt.)

It instantly lines up right behind the Super Bowl win over the Pats as the greatest game of Eli Manning's career -- one in which he is settling nicely into just enough consistency and signature wins to wonder whether it's unreasonable to think both Mannings are future Hall of Famers.

And it triggers a "hot hand" theory about these Giants that immediately gets the pundits talking about 2007 (but really -- per Grantland's Barnwell -- looks more like Green Bay's run from last year, most notably for the the road shellacking delivered to a seemingly superior No. 1 seed.)

Last big issue from yesterday's game (aside from the notable instances of atrocious officiating): Did the combination of the first-round bye plus taking off Week 17 hurt the Packers? Obviously, it's hard to say, and you'd like to think pros playing at a high level can manage that kind of tapering -- on the other hand, it's impossible to ignore, and I think that, at the very least, any team that far in the lead in Week 17 will at least play its starters for a half. (The far more intriguing idea is that playing in the bye week sharpened the Giants enough to pull the upset -- the Patriots and Ravens and 49ers are a counter to that, obviously, but qualitatively, it sure seems compelling.)

Looking ahead to next week: The Giants may have momentum and mojo, but I feel like Jim Harbaugh eats other teams' mo and mojo for a mid-day snack -- just look at what he did with the Saints' mojo. Now, the Giants' defense is far more dangerous than the Saints' D. Then again, the Giants' offense isn't nearly as tough to stop as Brees & Co. Harbaugh has proven himself to be the NFC's best coach (and perhaps the NFL's best coach... and perhaps the current best head football coach in the world, regardless of level), and the Niners' confidence is off the charts. Then again, that's what we all thought about the Packers.

I don't mean to dismiss or ignore the Ravens' win over the Texans. It was entirely expected (if not as decisive as folks would have liked to see). I think the conventional wisdom will be that the Pats will throttle them in Foxboro next weekend -- that's a mistake, obviously; the Ravens are far more set up to upend the Pats than the Broncos were. (Best thing I read about the Ravens' win was from the Baltimore Sun's Kevin Van Valkenburg.)

As for Houston, they should be thrilled by finally making it to the playoff field, and feel comfortable that if they can keep Matt Schaub healthy, they are a contender to advance one more round to the AFC title game. (Then again, ratcheted expectations -- without a whole lot of breathing room -- are typically a route to being disappointed.)

Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.: SB Nation's Bomani Jones tweeted out a link to Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and it's always worth it to re-read.

-- D.S.

Sunday 01/15 (Very) Quickie

2012-01-15T10:08:00.003-05:00

Let's lead with Tebow, because it's disingenuous for the media to spend a week making him THE story, then dismiss it because he fell short (even way short) of beating the No. 1 team in the AFC (and perhaps the NFL) rested and playing at home and led by a combination of the best coach and best QB of the generation. (Enough caveats?)

It's pretty simple, actually: There wasn't a result last night -- nail-biter or blowout or anything in between -- that would take away from what has, by all accounts, been a phenomenal season for Tebow and the Broncos: From expectations of a handful of wins (even fewer when Tebow took over the starting QB role) to a division title and Wild Card Weekend win over the defending conference champs. It was a successful year, relative to almost any other team in the league -- and a wildly successful one relative to the Broncos' own expectations for Tebow and the team in '11.

Yes, it was a blowout -- a humiliation. No, it wasn't unexpected. The Patriots are a juggernaut and I'm curious to see the team that can handle them -- of the remaining teams in the field, it seems like the 49ers have the best shot. Anyway...

What next for Tebow? The biggest risk to Tebow's future with the Broncos in '12 and beyond isn't Tebow -- it's John Fox, who was so vastly overrated this season that it masked just how overmatched he was when he veered slightly (let alone wildly) from the orthodoxies of offense that he is most comfortable with. Let's be clear: Tebow may have shown enough to merit a year of starting and the team may be fully behind him, but Fox is not. If it was up to Fox and he had his choice between coaching up Tebow and the team's scheme and inserting a mediocre veteran, he would pick the veteran. We know this because he already did -- in August, with Kyle Orton and with disastrous results. That -- and not the coach of the Tebow campaign -- is the real Fox.

That's more than enough about that (for now). Let's focus on Tom Brady's excellence and the ridiculous schematic advantage Bill Belichick enjoys with his pair of superlative tight ends -- Gronkowski and Hernandez, either one of whom could be a Top 5 TE when featured on a more conventional team, but when teamed (and teamed with Brady), become the most unstoppable force in football. The most surprising thing of last night's game was the way that the Pats defense came to play. That worked against the Broncos and should hold up against the Ravens-Texans winner (OK: the Ravens), but it's hard to know if it'll work against, say, the Packers.

Last note: It's a shame that the Tebow/Brady nightcap will take a bit of the glitter from the 49ers win over the Saints, which was one of the most exciting playoff games in NFL history. What a win for the 49ers, what a win for Jim Harbaugh (not just arguably the best coach in the NFL, but the best coach at any level in football) and what a win for Alex Smith, who has gone from maligned to playoff hero. Smith's ascension is an even more impressive story than Brady's big night (and certainly more than Tebow and the Broncos falling short).

-- D.S.

1/13 (NFL Divisional) Quickie

2012-01-13T09:10:00.003-05:00

I actually try pretty hard to limit my Tebow talk here to just the big national storylines that everyone is talking about (For more on Tebow, try TimTeblog.com.)

But what happens when the Tebow story overwhelms everything else? From that dumb "St. Elmo's Fire" remake ("Tim Tebow's Fire") to the "Most Popular Athlete" poll to the talk about the "3:16" coincidences in the game to same-old stories about the Tebow story -- as if fans (even non-fans) don't already know all about him. And yet... people can't get enough.

I'm entirely ready to focus on tomorrow's game, and I'm left feeling pretty similar to last week: A win, of course, would be great. But Tebow's validation as an NFL player was in leading the Broncos (projected to 3 or 4 wins this season) to the playoffs. Last week's win was obviously a bonus -- it is Tebow's new legacy, from the great stats to the crystallizing final play ("The Pass") to the record-shattering TV audience numbers.

If the Broncos lose tomorrow, it doesn't mean anything about Tim Tebow. It doesn't mean he sucks, it doesn't mean he isn't an NFL QB and it doesn't take away from what happened last week and all season -- it means the Broncos lost on the road to the bye-week-rested No. 1 seed in the AFC. Yeah, losing under those conditions would be humiliating. Come on.

Here's what last week did for me -- and, without projecting too much, probably did for a lot of fans: It made me believe that the Broncos can beat the Patriots. That's not saying they will -- I'm just saying I believe it can happen, even more than I believed the Broncos had a puncher's chance at beating the Steelers.

Belief is a powerful thing. It is a huge part of what has driven the Broncos -- and the Tebow phenomenon -- all season long. The story of Tebow throughout his young NFL career comes down to disbelief ("Tim Tebow can't...") and belief, with the result largely trending toward: "I cannot believe that just happened."

If it ends tomorrow night, it doesn't take away from last week's career-defining win. It doesn't take away from a magic ride this season. It doesn't erode Tebow's position as the incumbent should-be-starting QB of the Broncos next season.

Maybe -- just maybe -- it means a little less Tebow hysteria, which has nothing to do with Tebow himself and everything to do with everyone else. Tebow's biggest fans and his biggest haters can all agree that's a welcome finish.

More:

*NFL Picks: 49ers over Saints... Packers over Giants... Ravens over Texans.

*Dwight Howard: 39 free throw attempts last night, an NBA record. He also had 40+ points and 20+ rebounds in a win over Golden State. He only made half of the FTs, There's some pretty good analysis that the number of free throw attempts correlates to winning much more closely than free throw percentage.

*NFL Draft: A few of Alabama's junior stars are going pro early, including Trent Richardson -- who has impressed me more than any RB in the NFL since Adrian Peterson. Richardson is going to do extremely well in the NFL (although he will end up on a team with a worse offensive line -- relative to competition -- than he had at Alabama).

*The NCAA president can get behind a 4-team playoff: That's fine. It's an improvement on the current system. But let's please not suggest that picking a 4-team group will be any less contentious than picking a 2-team pairing. In fact, I predict it will be a LOT more contentious. (For example, let's say that picking LSU, Alabama and Oklahoma State would have been relatively easy this season for a 4-team field. Who is the fourth? Stanford? Why? They lost to Oregon -- decisively, actually -- and Oregon won the conference title. Why isn't Arkansas in the mix -- is it unreasonable that three teams from one league take four spots, particularly from a league like the SEC? I'm pretty sure that the reason pro-playoff folks like the move to a 4-team playoff is that the resulting controversies will amp pressure to increase it to 8.)

Enjoy your weekend -- it is arguably the best NFL weekend of the season.

-- D.S.

01/11 (Into the Tunnel) Quickie

2012-01-11T10:16:00.003-05:00

Thanks to everyone for the response to Quickish's 1-year anniversary yesterday. Much appreciated.

The end of the college football season is one of those moments where a lot of fans finally pay a lot more attention to college hoops for the two-month sprint until Selection Sunday. If that was you last night, then you got a whopper of a game with Illinois' upset win over Ohio State. Name to Know: Brandon Paul!

(Meanwhile, Baylor stayed unbeaten with a gutsy win at Kansas State -- the Bears seem so for real, but could easily be that classic 1- or 2- seed who doesn't make it out of the first weekend of the Tournament.)

NFL: It's not that Tim Tebow is bigger than the NFL, but Tim Tebow is easily the biggest star in the NFL, and it's not even close. Sunday's Wild Card game against the Steelers was the most-watched Wild Card game in a few generations, the second-most-watched show since last year's Super Bowl and basically blew the doors off the standard (high) interest in the NFL Playoffs.

Wow: The Jets players really kind of hate Mark Sanchez, don't they?

NFL Draft: Robert Griffin III is going pro. He will be the No. 2 pick of the draft, behind Andrew Luck. I don't think the Rams will take him -- I think they will open that pick up to the highest bidder, and one of the QB-starved teams behind them will pay a ransom to get him.

(The Colts are going to hire away the Eagles' player personnel director as their GM -- how instrumental was that guy in pulling together the debacle of a "dream team" during last year's free agency? Admittedly, the Eagles have drafted well. BTW: How hard is it to say "We're taking Andrew Luck and cutting Peyton Manning?" I guess they want the outside person to come in, because he'll have the lack of a connection to Manning necessary to make that obvious call.)

NFL Jobs: Jaguars hire Mike Mularkey. (Zzz... another re-tread.) Raiders fire Hue Jackson (who never really had a chance, did he?)

NBA: Hard to know what is the biggest story -- Kobe scoring 48... the Heat choking away a 17-point lead in Oakland to the Warriors... or the Wizards finally winning their first game.

Best Thing I Read Yesterday: SBNation's Spencer Hall on the end of the college football season.

Best Thing You'll Read Today: SI's Thomas Lake on the search for Michael Jordan's high school coach, the one who -- according to Jordan mythology -- "cut him from the varsity."

Pop by Quickish to keep up with all the best takes on the biggest stories.

-- D.S.

Final 2011 BlogPoll Top 25 Ballot: Bama

2012-01-10T14:37:00.001-05:00

Alabama is No. 1. LSU is No. 2. Oklahoma State is No. 3. You know I'm an SEC exceptionalist, but I really liked the trio at the top of the Pac-12 and the TCU-Boise pairing (TCU earning the edge for its head-to-head win).

DanShanoff.com Ballot - Week 16

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama Crimson Tide	2
2	LSU Tigers	-1
3	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	-1
4	Oregon Ducks	3
5	Stanford Cardinal	3
6	USC Trojans	--
7	TCU Horned Frogs	-3
8	Boise St. Broncos	-3
9	Arkansas Razorbacks	--
10	South Carolina Gamecocks	--
11	Baylor Bears	1
12	Houston Cougars	8
13	Michigan St. Spartans	2
14	Georgia Bulldogs	-3
15	Wisconsin Badgers	-2
16	Oklahoma Sooners	5
17	Michigan Wolverines	--
18	West Virginia Mountaineers	5
19	Kansas St. Wildcats	-5
20	Southern Miss. Golden Eagles	-4
21	Virginia Tech Hokies	-2
22	Texas Longhorns	--
23	Auburn Tigers	--
24	Cincinnati Bearcats	--
25	Northern Illinois Huskies	--
Dropouts: Clemson Tigers, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Arkansas St. Red Wolves

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

01/10 (Alabama) Quickie

2012-01-10T08:24:00.004-05:00

"They are a hateful bunch." That is Nick Saban describing his defense. What an appropriately colorful way to put it, after Bama's D shut out LSU to power the Tide to another national title.

It is an undisputed result from a highly disputable process. These were the two best teams -- Oklahoma State fans might weakly protest, but down deep they know that their Cowboys would be decimated by either of these defenses -- and if LSU's win in early November gave them a slight nudge (particularly for winning in Tuscaloosa), Alabama's win in the rematch was decisive.

Sometimes, teams are what we think they are. In the same way that this title-game rendered the first match-up basically moot, the fact that most people had Alabama tabbed as the No. 1 team in August proves that for all its eccentricities, college football is pretty simple: Bama's combination of arguably the best defense we've had in a decade and a punishingly simple offense made them an easy pick to win the title before a game had been played -- and after all of them had been played.

We are bordering on a dynasty here -- Florida's national titles in '06 and '08 were just as impressive, but could be bracketed under the "Tebow dynasty." Alabama's titles in '09 and '11 came with different QBs, different lead RBs, different WRs and TEs and a largely reloaded defense (one which nearly carried the team to a national title last year, too).

Saban's "hateful bunch" -- and seeing them in person at The Swamp earlier this fall, when they just ripped the soul out of the Gators (...again), that moniker is totally appropriate -- is the best program in college football, and right now it's hard to imagine another team that can knock them off.

More:

*Early prediction for the 2012 college football season: The regular-season winner of Alabama-LSU will win the national title (regular season: this time we really mean it!), but expect someone from the second tier of USC, Oregon, Oklahoma and West Virginia -- at least two of which will be unbeaten -- to claim the No. 2 spot in the title game.

*Baseball Hall of Fame: It's Barry Larkin -- entirely deserving -- and that's it, which is a shame. Folks can debate about someone like Jack Morris or Alan Trammell (whose profile is not so different from Larkin's) and there is certainly a philosophical debate about admitted PED users like Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro -- both entirely Hall-worthy on the numbers alone -- but it is mystifying that Jeff Bagwell remains on the outside. With loaded classes coming up next year and beyond, it's hard to know what will happen with the holdovers.

*NFL Jobs: Congrats to Romeo Crennel for earning the Chiefs' head-coaching gig on a full-time basis. His firing in a few years is an inevitability.

*One year ago today, I launched Quickish. Since then, it has been a non-stop roller-coaster -- 30-word blurbs and 90-second video clips at a time. Sincerest thanks for your continued support. Now: Go visit Quickish -- and tell 10 friends, while you're at it.

-- D.S.

01/09 (Tebow) Quickie

2012-01-09T10:23:00.003-05:00

You all know how I feel about Tim Tebow and even I didn't see that one coming.

Here's what I do know, and this goes to the heart of the Tebow phenomenon: Every time you think that Tebowmania can't get any more intense, insane or improbable... it does.

I had been arguing all week that Tebow didn't need to win yesterday's game to validate his season or his NFL career -- simply helping the Broncos get to the playoffs was more than enough.

And yet after yesterday's game -- Tebow's finest as a pro and, given the context, one of the greatest performances by any player in NFL playoff history -- Tebow has a new defining moment.

Not just in the NFL, but for his entire career.

Even the haters had to admit Tebow pulled off something special -- at minimum, they were speechless.

Oh, the Steelers might have misjudged their strategy -- but isn't that part of the strategic advantage you get with Tebow?

This is football's version of "rope-a-dope," with two opponents: The first was the Steelers, lulled into thinking that Tebow can't possibly pass, that the Broncos would rely even more heavily on the run, that his receivers can't make plays. The second was Tebow-haters, who pummeled Tebow for three weeks, only to find themselves winded and, ultimately, KO'ed when Tebow pulled off his greatest feat yet.

I will resume last week's expectations-setting: There is no shame in Tebow and the Broncos losing next Saturday to the Patriots at Foxboro. New England is the No. 1 seed in the AFC, playing at home, coming off a bye week, with the smartest coach and winningest QB. But no one can take away yesterday's win from Tebow, the Broncos and fans.

More:

*More NFL Playoffs: ...And yet people still put down Tebow and hold up Matt Ryan as an example of a "prototype" NFL QB.

*CFB: BCS Title Game! I'm picking Alabama to beat LSU, because all things being roughly equal, it's more motivating to seek revenge than to seek repetition. If Alabama wins, they should get the No. 1 ranking, and LSU should finish No. 2. None of this "split title" stuff.

*Baseball Hall of Fame: I feel strongly that Jeff Bagwell deserves to be in, but even more strongly that any voter keeping him out from unfounded suspicions of PED usage should be banned from being a Hall of Fame voter. Others I would have voted in: Larkin, Raines, Mark McGwire, Edgar Martinez. Very good chance that Larkin is the only player admitted today.

*Varsity Dad, Part 1: I took Gabe to the Wizards debacle yesterday. I will say this: The Wizards' best fan is a five-year-old, because he was paying less attention to what was going on on the court than he was to his cotton candy, the Wizards Girls, the Kiss-Cam, the Chipotle blimp, etc. Meanwhile, my Wizards are the worst team I have ever seen on an NBA court.

*Varsity Dad, Part 2: First practice for my team of 5-year-old basketball players. The other team sharing the court with us was the Kobra Kai of Kindergarten basketball. They were so organized as to be kind of scary.

Stick with Quickish all day for Tebow reactions, Baseball Hall reactions, BCS title game lead-up and more.

-- D.S.

01/06 (Penn State + Playoffs) Quickie

2012-01-06T11:09:00.003-05:00

Today's Name to Know: Bill O'Brien. The Patriots offensive coordinator is going to become the next football coach at Penn State. A few thoughts:

*His career as a college coach -- assistant level only -- was undistinguished. This is a red flag, not the least of which because the leap from OK assistant (with an NFL stop in-between) to head coach of a premier program is a huge one.

*His experience as a Belichick disciple is largely irrelevant. You certainly don't want to use Charlie Weis as your template. And the other folks -- Crennel, Mangini, McDaniels -- became flops in the NFL, not college, so it's apples and oranges.

*I have no problem with Penn State going "outside the program," which seems to have certain alumni players up in arms. These guys are fools. By necessity, they had to go outside the program.

If I had a problem with the hire, it's that he has no big-time college football experience and no head-coaching experience. That's a hell of a combination. (Some folks have mentioned Ron Zook as a comp -- that's a bit harsh, but point taken.)

Here's how this will play out: O'Brien's tenure at Penn State will be less than four years before he is fired. He will have accomplished what the program needs him to do: Wipe away the stench of the Sandusky scandal and Paterno's tainted legacy, setting the program up to hire a successful college head coach to return the program to its Top 20 stature.

It's a start, if not a full-blown re-boot. That is probably the best Penn State could have hoped for.

More:

NFL Playoffs! Let's start with this: I'm picking the Packers to beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl in a wild shootout. But let's focus on Wild Card Weekend:

*Bengals-Texans: This isn't the same Texans team that stormed through the first half of the season. (Neither is Cincy, frankly.) Pick: Cincinnati.

*Saints-Lions: It's a shame that the Lions' storybook turnaround season has to end here. They would have beaten the Giants and at least gotten to the quarterfinals. Pick: Saints.

*Giants-Falcons: The Falcons worked so hard last offseason to position their team to do better than last year's playoff run. They won't even make it out of Wild Card Weekend. Pick: Giants.

*Steelers-Broncos: I'm picking Tebow and the Broncos, obviously.... Wait for it... Kidding. Let's be totally clear: If the Broncos lose 55-0, it is still an incredibly successful season for Tebow and Denver. Nothing that happens on Sunday can take away from a shoddy team with expectations of winning maybe 4 games this season (or 2, starting the day Tebow was installed as the starter) riding Tebow enthusiasm and great D to a division title and playoff season. Pick: Steelers.

NBA: Kind of love that the Heat can beat the Hawks even without LeBron and Wade playing. My favorite Chris Bosh -- if there is such a thing -- is when he is forced into the No. 1 role from his usual No. 3 role, with no cushion of superstars around him.

NFL Draft: Oklahoma's Landry Jones and Wisconsin's Montee Ball are both returning to school, which should help set both teams up for Top 5 preseason spots -- and both players on Top 5 Heisman short-lists, along with another draft-spurner, USC QB Matt Barkley.

Varsity Dad, Part 1: I'm taking my 5-year-old to his first-ever Wizards game on Sunday. As a lifelong Bullets/Wizards fan, this feels like a cruel thing to introduce him to. But I'm separating rooting for the team from enjoying the in-arena experience. (Oh, and getting to see Ricky Rubio in person.)

Varsity Dad, Part 2: Gabe and his buddies in kindergarten have formed a basketball team. Practice starts tomorrow. (Games -- against other teams! -- start in a month!) I have volunteered as an assistant coach. This is going to be fun/absurd. I'll keep you updated.

Pop over to Quickish today to catch up on the best of yesterday you might have missed and all the good stuff we're featuring today -- focused a bit this a.m. on Bill O'Brien but really diving into NFL Playoff previews this afternoon. Enjoy the games.

-- D.S.

01/05 (Thursday) Quickie

2012-01-05T09:01:00.003-05:00

*West Virginia rolls in Orange Bowl: Wow. That first half was a spectacle. This is the offensive brilliance of new coach Dana Holgorsen -- why he is going to push the pedal down next season (and why he might be on the fast track for a top-tier -- or top-ish -- coaching job despite what some might describe as an erratic personality).

*NFL Jobs: Jeff Fisher is reportedly down to the Rams or the Dolphins, with Miami reportedly unwilling to be out-bid for Fisher, which means that it's really about which team he would rather coach. The Rams have a draft spot that allows them to get instant help on the O-line -- or trade for a bounty to a team that covets Robert Griffin III. They have a ton of cap space. They have low expectations. The Dolphins are in a brutal division with excessive expectations and a pretty flaccid QB situation. (But, then again, there's South Beach.)

*MLB Hot Stove: Cubs trade Carlos Zambrano to the Marlins, where he will get a fresh start under manager Ozzie Guillen, with no pressure to be the staff ace. As a No. 3 or 4 starter? Well, if he can get his head on straight, it's a steal for the newly loaded Marlins. (All the NL East needs is Prince Fielder to become the most intriguing division in baseball.)

*CBB: No team has vaulted preseason expectations like Georgetown. Last week's win at Louisville was impressive enough; last night's win vs. Marquette -- coming from 17 down -- was even more impressive. This was supposed to be a very down year for the Hoyas. Instead, they are locked in on a Top 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. (To what extent has the lack of expectations contributed to Georgetown playing so well? Qualitatively, it sure seems important.)

*More CBB: It's always fun when Duke loses. When they lose unexpectedly -- like they did last night to Temple -- it's even better. What did Duke in is what always does Duke in: They got out-muscled and they don't have enough players who can create their own shots. (The template for Duke success is always going to come back to that title team two years ago -- Zoubek on the inside and Nolan Smith on the outside.)

*NBA: The Heat played without Dwyane Wade against a Pacers squad that everyone thinks can play the spoiler in the East... and Miami destroyed them. Yeesh.

*Soccer: Tim Howard's goal was amazing. That he was like "Oh, no big deal" was even better. I'm all for fun celebrations, but sometimes no celebration is just as awesome.

Circle back to Quickish to catch up on yesterday's best -- and pop by today to keep up with the best takes on the biggest stories.

-- D.S.

01/04 (Michigan) Quickie

2012-01-04T09:15:00.004-05:00

I don't think that Michigan needed to win the Sugar Bowl to declare itself "back" -- a 10-win season and a spot in a BCS-level bowl game (not to mention a win over Ohio State) was more than enough. But the win certainly didn't hurt.

(Let's be real: The refs helped, too, overturning that sensational VA Tech OT TD catch for which there wasn't nearly enough conclusive video evidence to flip the verdict. The Hokies didn't do themselves any favors with the missed FG in OT.)

NFL Job Stuff: You've got to feel bad for Chargers fans. Norv Turner and AJ Smith's ouster after a mediocre season is an inevitability -- this was the moment to make a clean break... The Bears GM job is a good one (so is its offensive coordinator job... would you want to know they are re-signing Matt Forte before accepting?)... You shouldn't be surprised that Andy Reid will be back in Philadelphia, despite what could/should be pinned as one of the worst coaching jobs -- relative to expectations -- of the past decade.

CFB Jobs: Boise has locked up Chris Petersen, who seems content to keep churning out 11-win seasons in Idaho against mediocre competition (and the occasional giant). It's a pretty smart system, actually, and if he could just recruit a kicker who won't choke in the team's biggest game of each season, he would actually get to play for national titles. That's a backhanded compliment -- I am all for his choice to be a big fish in a small pond.

NBA: The Lakers are fine. They won't win the NBA title (ha! hardly.), but they certainly aren't the dud they seemed to be as the season tipped off.

CBB: I really try not to read too much into single regular-season performances by would-be contenders -- well, sometimes I read too much into stellar performances, but I try not to file away the lousy ones. That said: It's hard to catch UConn losing to Seton Hall and not think that the Huskies won't be adding six more consecutive wins to their current NCAA Tournament streak.

Sports x Politics: I wasn't far off on my Iowa caucus picks from yesterday morning! Maybe I should just launch the Quickish Politics spin-off now and punt sports.

Best Thing I've Read This Week (So Far): Michael Rosenberg in this week's SI, on Tom Brady's formative season at Michigan battling Drew Henson.

Stick with Quickish to catch up on all the good stuff you might have missed yesterday -- and pop by all day today to keep up with the best takes on the moment's biggest stories.

-- D.S.

01/03 (Bowl Hangover) Quickie

2012-01-03T08:54:00.003-05:00

Oklahoma State is a very (very) good football team. They vanquished Oklahoma. They won the Big 12. They beat a very good Stanford team in the Fiesta Bowl.

The Cowboys are not the No. 1 team in the country if Alabama beats LSU next week. I'm typically a "split-the-title" person, egging on the AP to nullify the BCS by picking an alternative champ. In this case, it's really hard to justify picking an OSU team that simply can't play defense and lost to Iowa State ahead of an Alabama team that would have lost by a field goal to overwhelming then-No. 1 LSU, then turned around and beat them.

That doesn't mean Oklahoma State didn't have a marvelous season. A Top 3 finish is hardly something to sniff at, particularly if your program has been as historically second-tier as OSU.

But if OSU getting snubbed inspires systemic change that generates a four-team playoff? That's an even bigger/better legacy than winning a national championship.

More:

*Gosh, is Oregon fun to watch. I'd love to see Oregon play Oklahoma State. I think Oregon would throttle them. (It's a testament to just how good LSU is -- and USC, frankly -- that they came out ahead of the Ducks when they played.

*Wisconsin QB Russell Wilson needed to know that 2 seconds isn't enough time to spike the ball. Just run a play and take your chances. It sure beats the alternative.

*Andrew Luck doesn't sound very excited about playing in Indianapolis if Peyton Manning is still there -- and he shouldn't be.

*Justin Blackmon is going to have as big of an impact next year as an NFL rookie as AJ Green did in Cincinnati this year. He might not make the playoffs, but he will make some terrible offense a lot better.

*OK, so the Heat aren't going to go 66-0? (Let's remember: The only thing that matters with the Heat is that Miami gets 16 wins in the postseason. That's it. That's all. Nothing else.)

*The NHL Winter Classic was terrific this year. Unless you're a fan of the Flyers or Rangers, it doesn't matter who won -- it's one of the great TV spectacles you'll get all year. A dramatic game is just a bonus.

*NFL Black Monday: It was time for a regime change from the Polians in Indy... Tough break for Raheem Morris in Tampa -- he has been doomed for weeks... If the Rams can pick up a big haul for that No. 2 pick (or simply take the best available OT), they are a great job opportunity... Beyond Bill Cowher, Jeff Fisher is the biggest name on the market; I think he ends up with the Colts (and Luck).

*Rex Ryan lost control of the Jets: The question is whether his system -- his management style -- creates an atmosphere where players freak out. The short-term answer is probably to be less sure of himself that he can handle headcases and stick to a more Belichickean strategy of recruiting a compliant roster.

*Bowling tonight: Michigan vs. VA Tech. Zzz.

*Politics: Iowa caucuses prediction time! Paul 24, Romney 23, Santorum 19.

-- D.S.

01/02 (New Year's) Quickie

2012-01-02T08:41:00.002-05:00

2012? A national holiday featuring tons of college football bowl games, the NHL Winter Classic and NFL playoff anlysis? Legggooo...

Today's Names to Know: Victor Cruz, Tim Tebow, Matt Flynn, Peyton Manning (and Andrew Luck), DeMarcus Cousins, Winter Classic, Chip Kelly, Montee Ball, Mike Gundy, Scott Hanson and more.

*NFL Playoffs: I'm looking forward to the Packers and Patriots riding home-field advantage all the way to a Super Bowl match-up that will feature the teams combining for more than 85 points, because neither team's defense can stop the other team's offense. That is a best-case scenario and that is what we're going to get.

Everything else is an appetizer. Love the idea of the Giants muscling into the Division Round. Hate that the Lions' amazing season will end simply because they can't stop the Saints in New Orleans. (FWIW: Even the 49ers will have trouble stopping the Saints in San Francisco.)

Love that either the Bengals or the Texans will be advancing to the NFL's quarterfinals. Love that the Broncos -- the Broncos! -- earning a home playoff game is somehow a problem. (So the Steelers are going to beat them -- perhaps even throttle them. So what? See the next item.)

Defense wins championships? Not this year. If this is the Year of the Quarterback (and there is a pretty good case it's just as much a Year of Gronkowski/Graham), it seems appropriate that Rodgers will have to out-duel Brees (and Graham) to win the NFC, with the winner meeting Brady (and Gronk) for a championship.

*Tebow: Let's be clear -- you will call me a Tebow apologist (an enabler!) and you will have a very strong argument. But no matter how Tebow and the Broncos enter the playoffs -- winning streak, losing streak, whatever -- they are entering the playoffs. They have out-performed 20 other teams, at least as it relates to the most important goal of the season.

The Broncos are going to get throttled next week by the Steelers? Who cares! Three other teams are going to lose in the first round of the playoffs, too.

The point is that Tim Tebow led the Broncos into the playoffs. The playoffs! The Broncos! A team that, before the season, was expected to win maybe 4 or 5 games as a best-case scenario -- even fewer if Tebow was given the chance to start at QB. But Tebow is going to get shellacked in the first round of the playoffs! is the dumbest sports argument of the day. The most important words in that statement are "Tebow" and "playoffs."

Every NFL season is an exercise in expectations management. The overall parity means that most teams think they have a shot at making the playoffs -- their fans would be thrilled if that happened. Some teams are "Super Bowl title or bust." The Broncos' expectations -- expectations for Tebow -- were nothing short of "Suck enough to give Elway the license to boot Tebow and draft a real QB." (That was the expectation as recently as midway through the Broncos' Tebowfied winning streak!)

The Broncos have -- and Tebow has -- exceeded expectations more than any other team in the NFL this season. That is -- excuse the blasphemy -- damn impressive.

*Colts: This is a no-brainer. Cut Peyton Manning loose. Draft Andrew Luck. Move on. I cannot believe that there is even a debate or discussion that the team should keep Manning around (at an exorbitant, franchise-crippling rate). It's not like the team is going to draft a question mark at QB -- Luck is the best NFL prospect to come out of college since Manning himself (except Luck was even more pro-ready in college than Manning). Again: This is the biggest no-brainer in the entire history of all "This team has a big decision to make" decisions.

*Matt Flynn: The greatest single-game performance by a Packers QB in team history -- and almost certainly the greatest performance by a QB in the final week of the regular season in NFL history. Good for Flynn -- that was a ton of fun to follow. It's not like the Packers didn't need every single one of those 6 TDs or four hundred gazillion yards passing. I love that at least some fantasy championships were won (or lost) on Flynn's hot hand, and I love that the kid is going to get paid off that performance to get his chance to start somewhere else. (I could absolutely see the Redskins going in for him -- what they and Flynn will both realize is that the Skins ain't the Packers.)

*CFB Bowls: To those whose teams' seasons end today -- like mine -- it's bittersweet no matter what the game result, because the season is over. No more Saturdays to look forward to, until September. Unless you're a recruiting nut or spring-practice hawk (guilty).

The best game of the day is Oklahoma State vs. Stanford, but I'm happy to watch Wisconsin-Oregon as an appetizer and Florida-Ohio State before that. (Warning: The Gators-Buckeyes game is going to make your eyes bleed with terrible offense.)

*NHL Winter Classic: Saw some rumblings from SI's Michael Farber about the empty mythology of the game, but it remains the single-biggest draw of the season for the NHL -- its greatest idea to market the game to the masses in the sport's history. Don't care who's playing -- must-see.

*NBA: DeMarcus Cousins wants out of Sacramento (and they want him out, too). As a Wizards fan whose team has the weakest power frontcourt in the NBA, I would gladly take Cousins to join his former Kentucky running mate John Wall. Seems like a no-brainer, frankly.

*One final salute to Scott Hanson, host of NFL Red Zone Channel on Sunday afternoons, the most delightful TV experience I have ever had, once I got my very first taste of RZC in Week 1. See... you... next... season.

-- D.S.

12/31 (Happy New Year) Quickie

2011-12-31T08:53:00.002-05:00

What's a new year's transition without reviving the old Shanoff "What's Hot/What's Not" for the old/new year? Here's a quick-ish version I whipped up.

Have a safe and enjoyable new year's eve everyone. More next week, but thank you -- sincere, hearty thanks -- for your support this past year, on this blog and (of course) at Quickish.

-- D.S.

12/27 (Brees) Quickie

2011-12-27T09:13:00.002-05:00

Two words: Drew. Brees.

*I am no sports prude. I have absolutely no problem with the Saints running up the score on the Falcons last night in order to get Drew Brees that Marino single-season passing record.

My problem is with the folks who would chide Pierre Thomas for slapping a bow on a football after his touchdown then handing it to his mother, then turn around and congratulate Brees after the Saints QB would agree to something as superficially classless as continuing to throw the ball up a gazillion points late, simply to get a record he would have earned in about 10 seconds next Sunday.

They both fall in the "sportsmanship" bucket, and you either have a wide interpretation of what is sportsmanship (Good for Brees! Good for Thomas!) or a narrow one. Hard to see how you can like one but not the other.

*NBA: (1) Rubio! Most of the league tipped off their season last night, and the revelation -- the new hotness of hotness -- was Ricky Rubio, who looked spectacular and instantly turned the T'wolves into a must-see team (not unlike the way John Wall had the same effect on the otherwise unwatchable Wizards). Some of his passes were jaw-dropping.

Meanwhile, the (2) Lakers are 0-2 (so are the Mavericks). It's one thing to drop a close one to the Bulls; it's another to drop one to the Kings (Marcus Thornton -- wow). It's great foreshadowing of the impact of back-to-back games on the old(er) teams. And it doesn't get any easier for the Lakers; they play the tail end of a back-to-back-to-back today, once again without suspended Andrew Bynum. An 0-3 start isn't out of the question.

(3) Good for the Hornets. That's a nice little karmic payback.

*College football bowlin': Little Caesars at 4:30 (pick: Purdue over Western Michigan), Belk at 8 (pick: Louisville over NC State).

-- D.S.

12/26 (NBA Is Back) Quickie

2011-12-26T12:46:00.003-05:00

First, there's this:

Hope you saw that yesterday (or just now). Meanwhile...

*The NBA is back. The Heat look unstoppable (and, frankly, with a year of loathing/schadenfreude behind us, entirely watchable). The Lakers and Celtics look creaky. The Clippers look overrated. The Warriors look lost. And the Thunder make me feel good about my prediction they would win the NBA title.

*NFL Week 16 in Review: Just a reminder that Aaron Rodgers is having one of the greatest seasons by a QB in NFL history. Speaking of superlatives: I said this on Saturday -- Cam Newton is finishing up the greatest season ever by an NFL rookie. Not just a rookie QB - any rookie... How can you not love Week 17 "play-in" games where the winner goes the playoffs and the loser stays home? Giants-Cowboys will be terrific.

*Tebow: So it's a testament to how amazing that mid-season run by the Broncos was -- remember that? I know, it's hard -- that the Broncos can lose to the Chiefs on Sunday and still win the division if the Raiders lose, too. I would like to see John Fox go back to the system that got him to this position -- run, run, run. Let Tebow run. Let the run set up opportunistic passing plays. Let the run earn first-downs on fourth-and-short. And for everyone jumping off the Tebow bandwagon -- and there are so many -- let's just remember that the Broncos being in a position to make the playoffs is still about 200% better than the preseason (or early-October) projections.

More NBA on tap tonight -- I'm tempted to take advantage of my relocation to zip over to Verizon Center to watch my Wizards open their season against the Nets, but... nah. The local cable broadcast (plus a free preview of League Pass) beckons.

-- D.S.

12/25 (Merry Christmas) Quickie

2011-12-25T10:02:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas to you and your family from me and mine.

The NBA is back (followed by -- at least for us, in traditional custom -- Chinese food and a movie).

-- D.S.

12/23 (Festivus) Quickie

2011-12-23T15:59:00.003-05:00

Happy Festivus! I have several grievances this year, but mostly I'm satisfied.

If you're not checking back all weekend, Merry Christmas (or Happy continued Hanukkah).

-- D.S.

12/21 (Year in Review) Quickie

2011-12-21T09:43:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year. Looking back at the most indelibly interesting things for me from 2011....

1. I launched Quickish. I have been working in Quickish since early 2010, but it didn't launch publicly until January. Since the day it went live, I have given over most of my life to keeping up with helping fans keep up. It has been the hardest (yet most satisfying) year of my career. More reflections on Quickish in a few weeks when we get closer to the 1-year anniversary of launching.

(The pace and intensity of Quickish has made it very difficult to focus on a single story or stories or moments that I felt were the biggest or most interesting of the year. Trying to think of the right combination of impact and interest, if I had to pick one -- with the obligatory "aside from Penn State..." -- it would be that last night of the MLB regular season.)

2. Gabe became a huge sports fan. Some time around Selection Sunday, it clicked, and since then, my 5-year-old has become a massive sports fan. He filled out a bracket, followed the NBA Playoffs, picked favorite teams, adopted my fantasy team and -- in large part thanks to Scott Hanson and NFL Red Zone Channel -- became a massive NFL fan. It's been fun for him -- even more fun for me. More about that later, too.

(Lots of moments to pick from, but the most thrilling by far was when Red Zone host Scott Hanson gave Gabe an on-air shout-out during Week 14 for Gabe's malaprop for Red Zone's weekly "Touchdown Montage" as the "Touchdown Massage.")

3. We relocated from Brooklyn to Bethesda. From the city to the suburbs. From an apartment to a house. It is very very different -- less the difference between NYC and DC (although they are substantial) than urban life and suburban life. That is what has taken the most time to get used to. I'm already a "soccer parent." We have been to Friday night football games at the local high school. I spend an inordinate amount of time in the car. We will inevitably get a minivan or other suburban ride. Then again, I never have to worry about parking, and we have a washer-dryer in the house. It's the little things.

Looking ahead to 2012: You might think it would be tough to top a year that included launching a start-up media company and, to a lesser extent, relocating my life. It's not: We're expecting kid No. 3, just in time for March Madness -- a girl to set the pace for her two older brothers. In a year of personal thrills, that is the biggest.

-- D.S.

12/20 (Lob City) Quickie

2011-12-20T09:30:00.003-05:00

And so the Clippers demolished the Lakers last night in their preseason opener. I'm ~~not~~ one to place outsized value on extraordinarily small (yet symbolic!) sample sizes, and so it's clear: The basketball universe in LA now revolves around the Clippers, not the Lakers. The Clippers looked young and vibrant (even Chauncey Billups, who torched the Lakers) and the Lakers looked archaic. For all the drama that led up to it, the CP3 trade to the Clippers is the single-best thing to happen to the NBA this season.

(Does that qualify as a Quickie NBA Preview? Not quite: No preview is complete without a prediction for which team will win the championship, something that everyone was delightfully wrong about a year ago at this time, when precisely no one picked Dirk and the Mavericks. My head says that adding Shane Battier is precisely the piece to put the Heat over the top, but -- as with last year -- my second-biggest rooting interest behind my team, the hapless Wizards, is wanting the Heat to fall short. I'm going to pick the now-or-never Thunder over the Bulls.)

Best thing I found yesterday to recommend on Quickish: Jane Leavy's piece on Babe Ruth's daughter. (Thing I thought would be better: Charlie Pierce -- who is brilliant and whose work I love/admire -- falling into the "hysterics" trap of dropping in to write for the first time about Tim Tebow and trying to bite off the entire phenomenon in 750 biting words. Look: If you don't like Tebow -- or don't like the hysteria around him... or don't like the religion stuff -- it'll be satisfying red meat. I was hoping for a bit more nuance from Pierce -- the kind you typically see, certainly as it relates to Tebow, from Pierce's closest analogue for the 2.0 audience, Tommy Craggs of Deadspin. Now, let me go back to Pierce's politics blog on Esquire, which I check 5 times a day for updates....)

Yesterday, my 5-year-old son Gabe spent the morning creating football franchises in an imaginary league. Last night, he designed their football helmets. (All with no prodding from me, mind you.) More on the larger story of my year in review -- which was impacted in large part by Gabe's nascent sports fandom -- tomorrow, but needless to say, it was one of my most delightful moments as a parent.

-- D.S.

12/19 ("Tom > Tim") Quickie

2011-12-19T09:01:00.002-05:00

My thoughts on the Tebow game can be found over at TimTeblog.com. I'll give you the condensed version: (1) This was not (and never was) a litmus test for Tebow or the Broncos... (2) John Fox remains entirely underminey... (3) Tebowmania will cool off a bit and that's a very healthy thing.

More:

*Packers: 13-1. I'm way less interested in the Packers taking their first loss than I am at HOW they lost -- they looked entirely beatable, which makes the upcoming playoffs not the Packers coronation they appeared to be a week ago.

*Colts: 1-13. They still have Luck locked up. Here's a question: I guess they might want to trade Peyton Manning, but given the cost savings associated with simply cutting him the day the season ends, why wouldn't they do that? If I'm Irsay and Polian and I know I am locked in on Andrew Luck -- who can start immediately -- I'm jettisoning Peyton Manning in the time it takes to say "Good luck with that comeback." Yes, he's the franchise hero, but... kinda so what?

*Drew Brees: Holy s--t. And, naturally, my fantasy team (in the consolation bracket, adding insult to injury) was playing the guy who has Brees, so I got routed. Two weeks ago: In first place. Next week: Playing for 7th. Far more universally appreciated, I think it's fair to say that Brees has created a legitimate MVP debate with Aaron Rodgers.

*NBA: I appreciate the Magic wanting to hold out for the best package they can get for Dwight Howard -- hard to believe they still think they can keep him -- but it's clear that the subject is going to mess with the team's head. As long as it's a lost season, they might as well start the rebuilding two months early (ahead of the trading deadline) if they can help it.

*College hoops: Washington... yikes, not so much. That loss is getting filed away to pick the Huskies not to get out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. (If they make it.)

*WCBB: Huge win for Baylor over UConn last night. I will continue to default to picking UConn to win the championship, as I do every year. But Baylor sure looked good.

-- D.S.

12/16 (Bowl Mania) Quickie

2011-12-16T15:37:00.003-05:00

A DanShanoff.com holiday tradition! Match the name of the bowl with its sponsor. (Alas, the "Famous Idaho Potato Bowl" was ineligible due to its eponymous naming convention.)

12/15 (CP3) Quickie

2011-12-15T09:47:00.003-05:00

First, check out Quickish's "Best Sportswriting of 2011" list if you haven't seen it yet.

Next, the big news of the morning/day: Chris Paul being traded from the Hornets to the Clippers, where he will team up with Blake Griffin and instantly become the best point guard-big man combo in the league (unless/until we get Deron Williams and Dwight Howard).

Blake Griffin said it best: LA is going to become "Lob City," which might instantly take a spot as the coolest nickname in the NBA. The notion of the historically woeful Clippers as having more cachet -- and more top-level talent? -- than the Lakers is astonishing. It's not true, but the fact that we can even have an interesting discussion about it is more important than where it nets out.

Almost as important, it fixes the league's disastrous decision to rescind last week's trade of CP3 to the Lakers -- this is possibly a better deal, but if nothing else, it is roughly just as good. Given that the Magic seem intent on keeping Dwight Howard around as long as possible (if I'm the Lakers, I offer Gasol and Bynum for him, hoping that trumps the Nets' Lopez + every draft pick left this decade), the season seems settled enough to really get rolling.

More:

Tebow vs. the Pats: Highly recommend this read from Yahoo's Les Carpenter about the real secret to Tebow's success (hint: It's not religion -- it's... gasp... working harder than anyone else in the league.) My gut is that the Broncos are going to get steamrolled. But! I'm vastly overestimating the Patriots' defense, which is the worst of any playoff contender. I'm holding out that it stays close and even reserving a tiny piece of hope for a world-imploding Broncos W.

CFB Jobs: Wow, that Pitt (now Arizona State) coach is a jerk.

More later. Rolling on Quickish all day. Check it out! (And tell friends!)

-- D.S.

12/14 (Best Of) Quickie

2011-12-14T12:26:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, we published the "Best Sportswriting of 2011" list over at Quickish. Would love if you'd take a look. Some terrific folks are on there (with many, many more that produced awesome work this year -- captured on Quickish every day -- we couldn't fit on the list). If you're looking for some great writing to tide you over between now and the end of the holidays, definitely check it out.

-- D.S.

12/13 (Closing In On Year's End) Quickie

2011-12-13T10:39:00.002-05:00

Working on a terrific list for Quickish of the best "longish" reads of the year. In the meantime, this Dan Wetzel column about Tebow comes closer to articulating my own Unified Theory of Tebow than almost any I have read in the 4+ years of Tebowmania.

More fun year-end stuff coming over the next week. Sorry for the short post. More later.

-- D.S.

12/12 (Tebow...Again) Quickie

2011-12-12T12:00:00.003-05:00

Ironically, Tim Tebow leading the Broncos to yet another seemingly miraculous come-from-behind win was only my second-favorite moment of the weekend.

My favorite sports moment of the weekend -- perhaps of 2011 -- was shortly afterward when I was sitting there with Mrs. Quickie and my older son Gabe watching NFL Red Zone Channel and irrepressible anchor Scott Hanson gave a shout-out to Gabe for Gabe's notion of calling RZ's day-ending touchdown montage the "touchdown massage." It was as jaw-dropping of a moment as I've had this year. I have it on video -- I'll try to upload it today. But it was so awesome.

Meanwhile: So...yeah...Tebow. This ride we're on now -- and it's not just Tebow fans or Broncos fans or NFL fans or the mere curious or even late-comers to the bandwagon, but pretty much everyone right now -- is as fun a stretch as I think any player has had in recent NFL history. (That it is Tebow, of course, makes a huge difference.)

I'm not sure what's left to happen -- I mean, beating the Patriots next week (and even the Tebow-haters will cheer him for beating the Pats) would be the most improbable feat yet, but here's how things are breaking for Tebow these days: The Broncos could get waxed by 40 and they still are firmly in control of their division and their shot at the playoffs. So, honestly, who cares what happens as long as the Broncos make the playoffs.

You can scroll down to get my take on the insane weekend -- Braun, Indiana hoops, Cincy-Xavier -- but the other big news this morning is Chris Paul potentially going to the Clippers. I don't know why the Clips are so reluctant to give up Eric Gordon AND their 1st-round pick in next year's draft from Minnesota, a sure-fire Lottery pick in the deepest draft in years. It's Chris Paul. To team with Blake Griffin. Even if it's just two years, who cares? It's a combination of relevance plus the opportunity to be a playoff team -- if not a title contender -- that doesn't come around very often, certainly not for the Clippers.

Oh, and by the way: My fantasy team will end the season on a 3-game losing streak that saw me go from first place to out of the playoffs by a smidgen. My opponent this week shattered the league's single-game scoring record, so at least I wasn't even close. Shouldn't have crowed about my success a month ago; it was all downhill from there.

-- D.S.

12/11 (Very) Quickie

2011-12-10T23:20:00.002-05:00

Whoa. What a Saturday.

Ryan Braun PEDs: Say it ain't so! His side insists it's a false positive -- or at least something he had nothing to do with. Are you inclined to give him the doubt? (If so, why?)

Indiana buzzer-beater winner over No. 1 Kentucky: Gahhh! A program-making win for Indiana. One of the most electrifying atmospheres and moments in regular-season college hoops I can remember. I don't worry too much about UK (except that this is the kind of loss that makes me not want to take them to win six on my bracket in March), but it's so huge for IU. So so so huge.

Robert Griffin III wins Heisman: What a worthy winner. I love RG3. His Superman socks -- complete with a mini-cape! -- won the night. He's going to be fantastic in the pros.

Xavier-Cincinnati brawl: Feels like Cincy and coach Mick Cronin are taking responsibility more than Xavier, whose players after the game were defiant, where Cronin was livid/humiliated at his players' actions. Tons and tons of suspensions, and -- frankly -- I wonder if they should discontinue the rivalry for a year or two to let things cool off.

NBA + Dwight Howard: And, after all that other stuff, there's the NBA, where today's big story was Dwight Howard requesting a trade, ideally to the soon-to-be-Brooklyn Nets. The Magic are doing the right thing trying to maximize their package for him, regardless of whether it's with a team he wants to end up with. He can sign wherever he wants next summer.

Can't remember a more packed Saturday -- or any day, frankly. Particularly the level of highs (Indiana, RG3) and lows (Braun, Xavier-Cincy).

-- D.S.

12/10 (Very) Quickie

2011-12-10T10:21:00.003-05:00

Great day of traditions today: Army-Navy, El Clasico, Cincy's Crosstown Shootout.

This is my favorite, from Taylor University and it's "Silent Night" tradition, where the student section is silent until the team scores its 10th point, at which point the students go bananas:

It's one of the great annual traditions in sports, let alone college sports. During a stretch where the NBA is doing its best to muck up a good thing, it's a good reminder of the joy of sports.

Speaking of the NBA, let's hope that the league approves whatever tweaked version of the CP3 trade that the Hornets, Lakers and Rockets figure out. It's the only way the league gets through this crisis -- and, yes, I think it's not unreasonable to call it a crisis -- and moves forward.

More NBA: Dwight Howard and the Magic will talk with the Mavs, Lakers and Nets about a deal for D12. Unclear what the Mavs can offer, besides a bunch of role players. The Lakers can obviously dangle Andrew Bynum, who is young and talented, but with the knees of a 15-year veteran. The Nets can offer a big -- Brook Lopez -- who is about as sturdy as they come, but unspectacular (and a terrible rebounder). For the Magic, it's a tough situation. I think I would go with the Nets' offer, but I'm biased by an interest in seeing Brooklyn have a fun team.

CFB: It doesn't matter if neither team is any good -- Army-Navy is a must-see, if only for the pageantry and pride on the line... UCLA is hiring Jim Mora Jr? Yeesh... Texas A&M could win the day on the coaching carousel if they announce they've hired Houston's Kevin Sumlin.

Heisman: Hard not to love that Baylor QB Robert Griffin III is going to win. Probably beyond the wildest dreams of any Baylor fan, but Griffin is entirely deserving -- the most talented player in college football, who put an entire mediocre program on his back and led it to relevance (not to mention a couple of huge dramatic wins). Luck, Richardson, Mathieu and Ball will all be fine -- Luck will be the No. 1 pick of the NFL draft; Richardson will be top 5 (top 10?) and have an extraordinary NFL career; Mathieu could win the Heisman next season as a defensive player (before a stellar NFL career of his own) and Ball will own the single-season TD record after playing in the Rose Bowl, plus do just fine in the NFL himself.

Soccer: I'm a Barca fan, so that's where I stand for today's El Clasico.

CBB: Good test for Ohio State at Kansas -- I'll take the Buckeyes... Kentucky is going to throttle Indiana... Love Xavier-Cincy -- one of the great rivalries in college sports.

Have a great day everyone. Give Quickish a look today -- lots of fun stuff there.

-- D.S.

12/09 (CP3 vs. Stern) Quickie

2011-12-09T08:49:00.002-05:00

I'm appalled by what David Stern did yesterday.

Nullifying the Hornets' trade of Chris Paul to the Lakers is, in my mind, the lowest moment for the league in its modern, post-merger history. Worse than the Malice at the Palace. Worse than Donaghy. So much worse than The Decision. And very much worse than either lockout.

Was I happy about the Lakers' acquiring the best point guard in the game? Not at all. It was a bit dispiriting, actually. But not to the point that I wanted to see it nullified! I hated the Decision, too, and yet watching the Heat fail was one of the most exciting, wonderful feelings many NBA fans could have (in the absence of their own team winning).

The Lakers would have been spectacular, but there is no guarantee they would have just waltzed to a title (or traded Andrew Bynum for Dwight Howard). It would have been interesting to see if their thin frontcourt could have handled the rigors of the playoffs. It would have been interesting to see if CP3's knee could hold up. It would have been interesting to see if Paul and Kobe could co-exist. (And, frankly, it was a pretty good deal for New Orleans -- as good as they'd get.)

The point is that it is an overreach of massive proportions that David Stern cancelled the trade. However fans felt about the trade, Stern's move pierced the suspension of disbelief (or, put another way, the belief) that is core to fans' relationship with the sport.

This is way, way worse than the lockout. I don't think Stern appreciated the magnitude of the blowback he's going to face today. (And if he does appreciate it, what does THAT say?) Worst of all, we don't know where things go from here. It's like the league has been tazed by its own commissioner.

-- D.S.

12/08 (Pujols Angels) Quickie

2011-12-08T10:45:00.003-05:00

I was kind of waiting for Pujols to make his decision before writing this morning. Now he's done it -- leaving St. Louis after a Hall of Fame career for the Angels, who are paying him $260 million over the next 10 years... roughly $40 million more than the Cardinals were willing to pay.

Let's start here: Good for Pujols. It's not like he left over an "all-things-being-equal" deal. This is substantially more.

And it's hard to blame the Cardinals. Again: It's not like he left over an "all-things-being-equal" deal. It would have been irresponsible of them to pay him that much.

It is a tough day for Cardinals fans, but at least they can say "We never could have matched that." (Cavs fans never had that chance.)

They can also say: "Thanks for the memories."

Albert Pujols will enter the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot sometime around 2028... in a Cardinals hat.

The whole thing made me think of the most dramatic player moves -- the ones where incumbent fans are left mostly miserable. I really want to focus on free agency, rather than "F--- you, trade me" trades, like Carmelo leaving Denver or John Elway telling Baltimore to cram it.

LeBron from Cleveland to Miami immediately comes to mind. Shaq from Orlando to LA. A-Rod from Seattle to Texas. Those feel like the Big Three.

T.O. from San Francisco to Philly? Eh... (Joe Montana to the Chiefs? Not really. Steve Young was better.)

But this one? This Pujols move feels like the biggest of all, topping A-Rod -- biggest money, biggest talent, biggest fan disappointment.

Just weeks removed from the Cards' magical World Series run, it's one of those piercing reminders that sports -- for all of its amazingness -- is just a business. Enjoy him, Angels fans.

-- D.S.

12/07 (Tebow? Tebow.) Quickie

2011-12-07T12:02:00.003-05:00

With SportsCenter running an all-Tebow hour from 2-3 today, let's dive into everyone's favorite topic:

*CBS and NBC are fighting over who gets the Tebow-Pats game a week from Sunday. The NFL is deciding, and if they want to maximize the audience for what will be the most-watched regular-season game of the year (or even in years), they should put it in primetime. (Even if the Broncos are potentially going to get shellacked.)

*Tim Tebow is totally making the Pro Bowl. I don't even think there is a question here -- the game is geared about rewarding excellence (which he has been) but also as a popularity contest (and there is no one more popular).

*The "Tim Tebow for NFL MVP" meme is trolling at its finest. The far more interesting question is this: Stipulating that, yes, Aaron Rodgers is clearly MVP of the league this season, where on your ballot would you put Tebow, if the season ended today? Top 5? Top 3? 2nd? I could make a case for Tebow as the runner-up on your MVP ballot, and it's a much better debate than the silly one vaulting him ahead of Rodgers.

More:

*MLB Hot Stove: If the Cards are anywhere close to the Marlins, Pujols obviously should stay in St. Louis. I don't even think it's a question. And hearing how close the offers seem to be, I think he's going to stay.

*NBA: If I'm the Hornets, I'm dealing Chris Paul to the Clippers for Aminu, Bledsoe, Jordan(?) and that unprotected Minnesota 1st-round pick in 2012, which could turn out to be Anthony Davis or Harrison Barnes, to pair with what will almost assuredly be the Hornets' own high draft pick in a loaded draft. It could re-make the franchise in under a year.

*NBA Schedule: My Wiz aren't on ESPN or TNT once. Not once. Even with one of the Top 5 most exciting players in the league. No matter: Right now, my focus is finding the first Wiz game that I'll take my kids to. Ahh: There's a 1 p.m. Sunday game against the T'wolves. Good seats still available, I'm sure. The regular season starts in 18 days.

*CFB Coaching Carousel: I like Southern Miss's Larry Fedora going to UNC. It's a program with a lot of potential in a flimsy conference there for the taking.

*CBB: Do you want to read a spectacular game story? You might not care at all about Missouri basketball, but Luke Winn puts on a clinic of how you write an informative, insightful story about a game that is so much better than typical fare, I was blown away. Read it here.

-- D.S.

12/06 (Pujols) Quickie

2011-12-06T09:59:00.002-05:00

MLB Hot Stove: If I'm the Marlins, I pay whatever I need to out-bid the Cardinals and secure Albert Pujols for the next 10 years. He's only the greatest player of the generation and only, ultimately, one of the Top 10 players in baseball history.

If he is half-speed for the final five years of the deal, making $25 million a year -- he is still better and more must-see than almost all of the league. And, by the way, I don't expect him to dramatically slide in years 6-10. What if he's only 75% of his current form? That's still a very very good player, and -- if you care about marketing your team -- still a "living legend" to sell to fans.

Like many many others, I was still going to Camden to see Cal Ripken even after he started to fall off, because it was Cal Freaking Ripken. He's worth it.

NBA CP3-mageddon: Paul can sign wherever he wants next season, that's his choice, and the Hornets can trade him wherever they want -- and they should. If I was a contender (or the Magic), I would trade for him even knowing he'll bolt for the Knicks next summer, if only to take my one shot at a championship. Flags fly forever.

Heisman Watch: Can't complain about any of the five finalists -- frankly, I'm thrilled they picked five, because in past years, they have gone shorter, thus denying some great player the chance simply to go to New York for the ceremony, which is an honor by itself. As for my ballot? I'm going (1) Robert Griffin III; (2) Trent Richardson; (3) Tyronn Mathieu, who edges out Andrew Luck after the Honey Badger's spectacular performance in the SEC title game (which should absolutely matter).

Luck's consolation prize is (a) he's the top pick of the NFL draft; (b) a 15-year star-studded NFL career that will likely include at least one Super Bowl title; and (c) he is likely going to win the Heisman anyway, even though RGIII was the most superlative player in the sport this year.

-- D.S.

12/05 (Fire Up) Quickie

2011-12-05T08:56:00.005-05:00

This is a phenomenal day in sports: The BCS system produced one of its most (if not THE most) divisive results yet... MLB Winter Meetings are kicking off, and Jose Reyes is on his way to the Marlins (Pujols next?)... NFL Week 13 was Tebow-tastic (no, seriously, it's beyond even my own highest expectations at this point)... college hoops is coming off its best regular-season game in years (Kentucky edging UNC in an NBA-laden insta-classic)... Oh, and Tiger is back. Let's dive right in:

BCS: In a way, this represents the culmination of the last half-decade in college football -- the SEC has been so dominant that its second-best team gets what amounts to the benefit of the doubt from pollsters, even though it already had a chance to beat the top team and couldn't, even while there is another contender that has made an entirely legitimate case.

I always thought that the SEC's market power would eventually drive it to secede from the BCS when the conference gets screwed -- in this case, the SEC's market power has proven so strong that it has overwhelmed the BCS system... and may trigger reforms anyway. (The on-field result is still the same: The best SEC team is almost assuredly the best team in the country.)

My late-night conversion on Saturday supporting LSU-Oklahoma State over LSU-Alabama II turned out to be just another Quickie Jinx. I give Alabama -- fueled by a sense of payback -- more than a puncher's chance against LSU (certainly a better chance than OK State would have had). But that doesn't mean it's a satisfying result.

Final Coaches Top 25: It's an annual treat to see the pettiness of the final Coaches Top 25. For example, Air Force's Troy Calhoun had Oklahoma State FIFTH, the lowest of any coach. (Now, to his credit, he had OKS ranked low every week leading up to the final one.) But you have to love Nick Saban ranking OK State 4th on his ballot. Syracuse's Doug Marrone and Duke's David Cutcliffe did, too.

But the big winner is Missouri's Gary Pinkel, currently in the Big 12 but bolting for the SEC -- he had Oklahoma State ranked 4th, too. He knows what side of his bagel is buttered... at least starting today.

MLB Winter Meetings: Love the Marlins taking a big swing by paying Jose Reyes $106 million, giving them an exciting superstar to complement Hanley Ramirez and Mike Stanton (and Ozzie Guillen). I fully support them doubling down (doubling up?) and overpaying Albert Pujols. For all the grief the franchise has taken -- under a couple of different owners -- let's remember: "Flags fly forever." And the Marlins, using an intentional boom-and-bust strategy, have two flags over the past 15 years, a trade plenty of fans would be willing to make. Should be an exciting week that harkens back to my private test run of Quickish last December, where I was feverishly covering the MLB Winter Meetings and Hot Stove craziness for an audience of... me.

NFL Week 13: Tebow Time... again. Or is that "again again again again again again..." For everyone focusing on the funky option-style offense, Tebow ran the ball exactly three times yesterday. Instead, he threw the ball efficiently (that one sideline scramble into a TD pass was his best play as a pro, without question) and didn't throw an INT and -- here's where it gets interesting -- the mere threat he presents as a runner (actualized or not) turned into part of the Broncos' offensive strategy. Yes, it was the woeful Vikings D, but whatever: Tebow has led the Broncos into first place, with a better-than-not chance of advancing to the playoffs. I would never suggest that Tebow displace Aaron Rodgers as 2011 NFL MVP -- Rodgers is playing better than any QB in the history of the league, frankly -- but I have absolutely no problems promoting Tebow as the runner-up candidate. He should be on the down ballot.

Speaking of Rodgers: Good golly. He's so good. He's just so so good. You need to watch Packers games because you are watching as close to the idealized version of a quarterback playing as you will ever see. (BTW: Rodgers is my 5-year-old son Gabe's second-favorite player, behind Cam Newton.)

Navel-gazing fantasy talk: Yesterday was the greatest fantasy game I have ever played in. I am tied for first in my league, which is crowded at the top for four playoff spots. I was playing a team in the pack one game behind the leaders; my opponents' team leads the league in scoring -- my team is, by far, the lowest-scoring of any of the playoff contenders. All day, he and I watched our match-up swing back and forth: In the early-afternoon, I beat back his surge led by Gronkowski and the Steelers D with my own surge of Mike Wallace, Percy Harvin (mercy!) and... Tim Tebow. My lead evaporated in the late-afternoon because he has... Aaron Rodgers. It was a series of haymakers by both sides. Where it stands now: He is 9 points ahead, but I have the Chargers D going up against the inept and rudderless Jaguars offense. It'll be close. But however it ends, it was a phenomenal day in front of Red Zone.

Speaking of Red Zone (my favorite thing of 2011, if not ever): I got a retweet from Red Zone Channel host Scott Hanson -- in the middle of the Packers-Giants finish, no less -- for a tweet I sent out, which is totally real: "My 5-y.o. calls the #nflredzone Touchdown Montage the "touchdown massage," which also works." I'm not prone to be star-struck, but for Scott Hanson? Oh, that made my weekend (and Gabe's, too).

College hoops: Whoa, Kentucky is really really good. And that is despite the fact that high-ranking frosh PG Marquis Teague isn't nearly as good as his hype. But Terrence Jones? Awesome. Anthony Davis? A defensive force. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist? As high of a motor as I've seen in college hoops in years. The rest of UK's supporting cast? Good enough to win a championship. (Then again, that's been the look for the past few years -- we'll see if they have the will to elevate themselves when it matters, not in mid-December.)

Tiger: My favorite detail is that after he won, he tweeted out a link to LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out," presumably for its iconic opening lines: "Don't call it a comeback! I've been here for years...."

SI Sportsman of the Year: Comes out later this morning. I had a couple of whiffs -- Aaron Rodgers, "The Fan" (ugh) -- but I have my "final answer" of a guess: Coach K.

Seriously: We're off to an amazing start this week. Check out Quickish to keep up.

-- D.S.

BCS Title Game Top 25 BlogPoll Ballot

2011-12-05T07:00:00.002-05:00

LSU vs. Oklahoma State. If I think Alabama would beat (even crush) Oklahoma State head-to-head, I still have to rank the Tide behind Oklahoma State, because the top two teams play each other in the championship game -- at least, theoretically. If Alabama beats LSU in the national-title game, I will have no problem adding an appropriate coda to the season and calling them "co-champions." I can sleep easy with that. Beyond that, I really think Boise State is good. Of course, I can't rank TCU behind Boise State. And so to put Boise State in my Top 5 -- where they belong -- TCU goes there, too. I think both would beat any of the teams listed 6-10. Oh, and I simply enjoyed adding Arkansas State as my 25th team. A worthy conclusion.

DanShanoff.com Ballot - Week 15

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	2
3	Alabama Crimson Tide	-1
4	TCU Horned Frogs	1
5	Boise St. Broncos	1
6	USC Trojans	3
7	Oregon Ducks	4
8	Stanford Cardinal	4
9	Arkansas Razorbacks	-1
10	South Carolina Gamecocks	4
11	Georgia Bulldogs	-4
12	Baylor Bears	7
13	Wisconsin Badgers	4
14	Kansas St. Wildcats	4
15	Michigan St. Spartans	--
16	Southern Miss. Golden Eagles	7
17	Michigan Wolverines	-1
18	Clemson Tigers	3
19	Virginia Tech Hokies	-6
20	Houston Cougars	-17
21	Oklahoma Sooners	-11
22	Nebraska Cornhuskers	-2
23	West Virginia Mountaineers	-1
24	Cincinnati Bearcats	1
25	Arkansas St. Red Wolves	--
Dropouts: Texas Longhorns

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

12/04 (BCS) Quickie

2011-12-04T08:11:00.003-05:00

I have always said: I am happy -- even thrilled -- to change my opinion in the face of new, better evidence. Frankly, I'd rather be proven wrong than be right.

So:

I am totally behind LSU playing Oklahoma State for the national championship. Sorry, Alabama: In the end, you had your chance. And Oklahoma State has proven itself worthy of its chance.

I don't know whether enough coaches and Harris Poll voters and computer formulas will lift OK State over Alabama -- but it'll be compelling either way.

(I will say this: In the event LSU loses to Alabama and Oklahoma State throttles whoever, AP voters are free to award the Cowboys their share of the national championship.)

(And I will say this: If you hate the BCS, you want Alabama to get snubbed, then the SEC pulling itself out of the BCS and setting up its own indie playoff.)

The larger point is important: The system is broken enough as it is. Let's not muck it up by nullifying the de facto playoff game LSU and Alabama played last month -- and denying a worthy Oklahoma State.

That LSU will probably destroy OK State -- just as Auburn destroyed Oregon and Alabama battered a McCoy-less Texas and Florida stifled Oklahoma and LSU destroyed Ohio State and Florida overwhelmed Ohio State -- isn't the point. It's not the point.

Hell, Alabama might throttle Oklahoma State, too. But the point is that based on the evidence of on-field results, that's not clear. And in that case, you've got to give OK State their title shot, too.

-- D.S.

12/02 (CFB Finales) Quickie

2011-12-02T09:36:00.002-05:00

It's the end of the college football regular season -- for many, it came last week. But tomorrow is the last day of the old "sit in front of the TV from 10 a.m. until midnight" Saturday routine. As always, I'll miss it.

LSU is going to demolish Georgia. The Tigers' place in the national title game is secure. The only curiosity -- at least as it relates to the BCS -- is if Oklahoma State can beat Oklahoma so viciously and so publicly that voters leapfrog an OSU team that lost to a barely bowl-eligible Iowa State team ahead of an Alabama team that lost in overtime to the No. 1 team in the country without giving up a touchdown.

Beyond that, there is the novelty of crowning the first-ever Big Ten and Pac-12 conference title game champs. There is the fun of watching Houston's Case Keenum one last time. And there is the absolute must-see Robert Griffin III trying to lead Baylor past Texas, capping a wonderful year for a player soaring up Heisman (and NFL Draft) boards.

This was a mediocre college football season for my team, but I'll still miss it.

More...

*NFL Last Night: The Eagles are the biggest joke of the past decade in the NFL. God, remember all the breathless preseason talk about them in August? (I was part of it.) They are an embarrassment -- and it's actually so much more fun to watch than if they were good.

*NFL This Weekend: Tim Tebow at Minnesota, looking for his 6th win in a row against a team without its best player... Must-win for the Bears at home against the Chiefs... The Pats-Colts game is going to be hilarious... Huge potential for the Falcons to get a big win in Houston playing against a Texans team just trying to limp across the playoff finish line... Game of the Week: Bengals at Steelers. Don't give much of a shot to Cincy, but you never know.

*NBA: Chris Paul is trying to be Mr. Nice Guy by not admitting he wants out of NOLA for NYC. The Hornets need to trade him ASAP, and the best plan I've seen is from CBSSports.com's Matt Moore, who lays out the case for the Magic to mortgage the farm for CP3 and make a run at a title right now, hoping Dwight Howard and Paul want to stay together in Orlando, but realizing that the reality is that both would probably bolt. But flags fly forever. Don't discount that.

*CBB: Damn, Kentucky looked good last night. This UNC-Kentucky game tomorrow is going to be spectacular. (Want a good appetizer? Try Florida at Syracuse tonight. For my money, you can keep all the players on UK and UNC -- the player with the most NBA upside is Florida's freshman guard Bradley Beal.)

*MLB Hot Stove: The Marlins are obviously trying to make a splash. Giving Jose Reyes a big contract (presuming they can manage Hanley Ramirez) is a big one. Giving Heath Bell a big contract is a dumb one. Fantasy is just like reality: Saves are overvalued.

-- D.S.

12/01 (Thursday) Quickie

2011-12-01T11:40:00.002-05:00

A few things on the agenda today:

CBB: Is UNC "back?" Regardless of whether they play in Chapel Hill or on the road, I think Wisconsin is as Tourney-tough of a match-up as UNC will see this year, including Duke (next year) or Kentucky (Saturday). An interesting win for the Heels.

NBA: The Magic can try to trade Dwight Howard to whoever they want, but I'm with the folks who think that if D12 wants to be in LA with the Lakers, he'll be in LA with the Lakers. For me, the most intriguing idea is that the Clippers could offer up a hell of a good package to the Magic, and Dwight could get to LA and carve out his own legacy, long after Kobe has retired.

LeBron vs. Durant Flag Football game: I wonder how an athlete who thrives on his authenticity -- like Durant -- felt about being part of something as contrived as a LeBron spectacle, which included no fans allowed, closing out the media, full pads and other overly precious LeBron-ish things.

MLB Hot Stove: As a new DC transplant -- and adopted (perhaps prodigal) Nats fan -- I can't help thinking that if the team didn't put all that money into Jayson Werth last December, they would have their pick between Fielder and Pujols right now. Plus Cespedes. Plus Oswalt or Buehrle. I actually find myself liking this team a lot.

Correction/Corrected: Eagle-eyed reader Tom emailed me to point out that not a week ago, I was saying "UNC and Duke are clearly the Top 2 teams in the country," then after Duke got throttled at Ohio State, I said Duke was clearly not a Final Four team. Yikes. Instant history strikes again! What I should have said was something closer to: "Setting aside the travel and the site, this was much closer to the profile of a team that typically gives Duke fits in the Tournament, which should give folks backing the Blue Devils -- like me just a week ago -- pause before taking Duke too far in March." As always, I am happier to be proven wrong than I am to be right.

Media navel-gazing: Congrats to SB Nation on two more fantastic hires -- Bomani Jones and Matt Ufford, two great talents (and folks I have been friends with for years). Expect them both to contribute heavily to SB Nation's new (and extremely promising) video network, in partnership with YouTube.

-- D.S.

11/30 (Best Books) Quickie

2011-11-30T12:02:00.003-05:00

Just published the Quickish list of the Best Books of 2011. Always a fun list to put together.

CBB: I'm torn between presuming Ohio State will choke before it reaches the Final Four and giving them credit for taking last season's humiliation and using it to drive them to the final weekend. (Duke? That's easy: No Final Four.)

MLB: Bobby Valentine to the Red Sox. It's hard not to like it, because you know he'll keep things interesting -- and even the more statistically minded seem to think he will make a fine choice, if only because he won't succumb to the pressure to bat Crawford 1st.

Syracuse: Jim Boeheim clearly isn't going to get fired or pressured into retiring immediately (although we'll see what happens after the season), but it is also clear that his reputation is permanently stained for his association with Fine, plus his continued tone-deafness after the fact.

-- D.S.

11/28 (Urban Meyer) Quickie

2011-11-28T10:14:00.002-05:00

We'll get to the NFL, but first, a quick thought on Urban Meyer:

I'm an unabashed Meyer fan. I can hate Ohio State and like (if not root) for Meyer, not unlike I can hate the Patriots and like (if not root) for Bill Belichick.

As a Florida fan, I have no problem with him leaving a year ago for "health problems," only to turn around and take the Ohio State job not a year later. I can't begrudge him.

I think he will win big, if only because: it's a huge program with tons of resources; it's a huge recruiting base; and the Big Ten is dramatically easier than the SEC.

Here is what I see for Meyer: He will win Big Ten title after Big Ten title. He will not be able to beat the SEC's best, should he get the Buckeyes into the national title game.

In the end, that's the sneaky arbitrage for Meyer: Gaming a BCS system that would rank an unbeaten Ohio State ahead of a one-loss SEC champ -- ahead of everyone, really.

I'm not sure Meyer will be able to ever put together a collection of talent (and coaching) like he had with his 2008 national champs in Florida. The brawn of Bama or LSU will still stymie him.

But Ohio State merely needs him to be great, not legendary. And do it in the milder Big Ten, not the off-the-charts competitive SEC.

Meanwhile...

*Tim Tebow: Not sure when the haters and snickering masses will finally ease up. If the Broncos didn't win another game this season, Tebow still outperforms the expectations by about 200%. Now: What if they go 4-1 down the stretch (which will include a thrashing on Sunday Night Football against the Patriots) and make the playoffs? That's my own expectation for him/them.

*Stevie Johnson: The TD celebration was in poor taste -- I'm not sure it commands a hailstorm of criticism. (Conduct penalty or not, if the kicker doesn't shank the subsequent kickoff, the harm of his celebration is neutered.) Frankly, I'm more offended that he dropped the easy would-be game-saving TD late in the game. If he's apologizing, it should be for that.

*Playoff Watch: The Texans are in a good enough position to make the playoffs without a QB -- they'll get drummed out in the first weekend. But that's OK: First of all, making the playoffs at all is a huge deal for the team. Second, no one expects them to get out of the Wild Card Weekend anyway. (The Bears, meanwhile, might run out of gas just short of the playoffs. I'm not as down on Caleb Hanie as some -- I think he can get them there. But once in the playoffs, they're cooked.)

-- D.S.

This Week's BlogPoll Top 25

2011-11-27T21:13:00.002-05:00

LSU, Alabama, then the rest. I'm not much of a fan of a four-team "plus-one" playoff -- try figuring out which four teams are worthy of joining LSU and Bama this year -- but I would love to see an 8- or even 12-team playoff this year (although I don't think anyone besides Alabama could beat LSU).

DanShanoff.com Ballot - Week 14

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
3	Houston Cougars	1
4	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	4
5	TCU Horned Frogs	1
6	Boise St. Broncos	1
7	Georgia Bulldogs	-2
8	Arkansas Razorbacks	-5
9	USC Trojans	1
10	Oklahoma Sooners	--
11	Oregon Ducks	--
12	Stanford Cardinal	--
13	Virginia Tech Hokies	-4
14	South Carolina Gamecocks	-1
15	Michigan St. Spartans	-1
16	Michigan Wolverines	--
17	Wisconsin Badgers	2
18	Kansas St. Wildcats	-3
19	Baylor Bears	-1
20	Nebraska Cornhuskers	3
21	Clemson Tigers	-4
22	West Virginia Mountaineers	--
23	Southern Miss. Golden Eagles	--
24	Texas Longhorns	--
25	Cincinnati Bearcats	--
Dropouts: Penn St. Nittany Lions, Auburn Tigers, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Virginia Cavaliers, Notre Dame Fighting Irish

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

11/27 (Bama) Quickie

2011-11-27T09:41:00.004-05:00

So here's the dilemma: If you think the national-title game should feature the top 2 teams in the country, your pick should be LSU vs. Alabama, regardless of other context.

If you loathe the idea of a "rematch" -- and I do -- then you would be forced to contrive some sort of cynical false workaround to wedge, say, Oklahoma State ahead of the Crimson Tide.

I think we have no choice but to favor the former -- it is the most intellectually honest.

Is it absurd that LSU has to play Georgia in Atlanta while Alabama gets a free pass to the national title game? Absolutely. But it beats the alternative of leaving one of the top 2 teams out of the NCG.

A few other notes:

*I edged Robert Griffin III past Andrew Luck on my Heisman ballot last week. This week, I push Trent Richardson past both of them. He's as good of a college RB as I've seen since Bo. (Now, is that him or his NFL-sized front line? We'll see next year when he is playing behind a woeful offensive line in the NFL.) Don't get me wrong: Luck is terrific and Griffin is a very close No. 2, for making Baylor relevant as the most spectacular talent in the game (and winning!)

*Congrats to Michigan -- it's been a long time coming. The arrival of Urban Meyer in Columbus is imminent, and while I love Urban, I look forward to rooting against him as part of tOSU.

*CBB: UNC loses in Vegas to UNLV. File that away for your bracket in March -- no team, no matter how invincible they look, is unbeatable when the right circumstances hit.

*NFL Sunday: Adjust your fantasy team and fire up the Red Zone Channel...

-- D.S.

11/24 (Thanksgiving) Quickie

2011-11-24T09:55:00.002-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving. And thanks to everyone for your continued support of this blog, along with Quickish (which has a ton of great Thanksgiving recommendations today.)

A great day of sports: Packers-Lions, then Dolphins-Cowboys, then 49ers-Ravens. The rivalry finale of Texas vs. Texas A&M. Whatever touch-football game you've got going on in your front yard. Then, hopefully a feast.

Have a terrific day.

-- D.S.

11/23 (Early Thanksgiving) Quickie

2011-11-23T09:14:00.003-05:00

First, of course, a word of thanks:

Thanks to everyone who has made this first year of Quickish so amazing -- mainly, I'm talking about all of you who support the company with your attention, your clicks and your telling all your friends about how awesome it is (and you ARE telling your friends, right?)

It has been an incredible year, and I can't thank you enough for being a part of it. Next year is going to be even better.

Wishing you and your families the happiest of Thanksgivings. Enjoy yourselves.

A few extra thoughts:

*NFL: What a Thanksgiving lineup. The unbeaten defending champs playing at the previously hapless (now playoff-contending) Lions, my favorite NFL tradition. And the Harbaugh Bowl tomorrow night is a perfect fit for a holiday that is so often about reviving sibling rivalries.

*CFB: The end of Texas-Texas A&M. I think it is ridiculous that Texas is cutting off the rivalry just because A&M is bolting the Big 12 for the SEC. Respect that the fans want to see it keep going. Grow up, UT. (Arkansas-LSU is intriguing on paper... right up until LSU gives Arkansas a similar shellacking to the one the Hogs got from Alabama.)

*Urban Meyer to Ohio State? He says no -- or should that be "not yet." This is such an inevitability, as it has been since the day Jim Tressel was fired (or, honestly, since Meyer left Florida last December).

*New MLB labor deal: I'm glad it ensures labor peace for a while. I'm less bullish that it appears to close the kinds of loopholes that allowed small-market teams to compete (namely, through paying at the draft, not via free agency). I'm pro=expanding the playoffs, and I think that it's hard to look at the wild success of the Wild Card and maintain that "less is more" is better. The fact is that the Wild Card is the best competitive addition to the game in its history.

*MLB Awards: Ryan Braun is NL MVP. Make no mistake: If Matt Kemp's team was in the playoffs and Braun's was an also-ran, this MVP result would be flip-flopped. Both are worthy for the award. Braun enjoyed the benefits of having a better team around him -- given the good feelings for the Brewers this season, it's hard for anyone outside of LA to begrudge the pick.

*CBB: It'll be Duke vs. Kansas in the Maui Invitational final, and I'm expecting Duke to romp. They're very good -- I actually think that they are going to throttle Ohio State next Tuesday, and we'll realize that it's Duke and UNC this season, with everyone else (including Kentucky) a step below.

*Broncos cut Kyle Orton: Remember when "genius" John Fox thought Orton was worth being the starting QB for the first five weeks of the season? Let's remember that as people are piling on the compliments for Fox. Orton is a capable QB -- on a contender, he could be helpful. (Why wouldn't the Bears think about adding him?)

Good stuff all day at Quickish -- good stuff all long weekend, actually. So check it out! And happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy your feasts.

-- D.S.

11/22 (Crosby) Quickie

2011-11-22T09:06:00.002-05:00

Five things to talk about today:

(1) Sidney Crosby's return: The Event of the Year in the NHL, and it more than lived up to the build-up. (How often can you say that? Quite often, actually.) Crosby makes the sport better.

(2) Justin Verlander wins AL MVP: I'm in the camp that appreciates Verlander's sick year but thinks the best everyday position player -- say, Ellsbury -- is inherently more valuable.

(3) Patriots crush the Chiefs: Anyone not see this coming? No? The Pats' season, as usual, is defined entirely by how far they get in the playoffs. (But watching Gronkowski is fun.)

(4) Arizona hires Rich Rodriguez: With the Pac-12's notorious lack of defense, he'll find the sledding easier than he did in the Big Ten. Should be a perennial Pac-12 South contender.

(5) Today: NL MVP. Matt Kemp is a worthy pick, but I'd give my vote to Ryan Braun, and not just because he is the greatest Jewish hitter since Hank Greenberg.

Great stuff on Quickish today (and yesterday, if you didn't pop by), with a bunch of Thanksgiving-themed things already on the site (with more throughout the week). Check it out!

-- D.S.

11/21 (Monday) Quickie

2011-11-20T22:38:00.004-05:00

Random thoughts on a Monday morning...

*Jay Cutler out: But...but...he finished the game! Take that haters. Has any team ever been better positioned only to end up falling short?

*The story of the week: Kevin Smith, the injury-prone but talented Lions wash-out who made a Detroit homecoming -- and had the biggest day of any player in the league (and certainly the most unexpected).

*Eagles beat Giants: Definition of "Too little, too late."

*49ers are 9-1: And can clinch the NFC West if they beat the Ravens on Thursday and the Seahawks lose to Washington.

*Dolphins win 3rd straight: As long as they're out of the Luck campaign, they might as well make it fun for their fans with a few Ws.

*Hot Seat: Time for Norv to go.

*Navel-gazing: My fantasy team is in first place, which is rare enough -- let alone this late in the season, with only three weeks left until our playoffs. Here's a bad sign: I'm last among playoff contenders in points scored and points allowed; that suggests an absurd amount of luck that is going to run out soon. On the plus side, I'm starting Tim Tebow at QB. What could go wrong?

*MNF Tonight: Even the Patriots' leaky D can handle Tyler Palko. (Right?)

*Looking ahead to Thursday, one of the best Thanksgivings in years: Unbeaten Packers at playoff-contending Lions in Detroit? Yes, please. And the Harbaugh Brothers sibling battle in Baltimore? Makes me want to abandon my family's dinner to zip in to B-more.

More...

BCS: SEC, SEC, SEC 1-2-3. I hate the rematch, but if LSU and Alabama are definitively the top 2 teams in the country, they deserve the two spots in the title game. To deny Alabama just because of the rematch would be more cynical than the system that put them together.

Heisman Watch: I'm standing by yesterday's decision to throw my support from Andrew Luck to Robert Griffin III.

NASCAR: I'm not a particularly big racing fan, but I've always liked Tony Stewart -- and I liked him a lot more when he became his own owner. He is, basically, a start-up founder, not unlike an early employee at Google or Facebook or PayPal. Oh, I've figured it out: He's the LinkedIn founder, who made his bones as an exec at PayPal before going out on his own to crush it.

CBB: The season is already off to an awesome start, and I'm ready for things to ramp up for the traditional Thanksgiving games, like the Maui Invitational, which features Duke, Kansas and Memphis (plus Michigan and Georgetown). Oh, and Northwestern won the Charleston Classic. This is the year.

MLB Hot Stove: Are the Red Sox going to hire Bobby Valentine? (Really? Look, at the very least, he'd be a lot of fun to have around.)

-- D.S.

This Week's BlogPoll Top 25 Ballot: SEC

2011-11-20T20:57:00.003-05:00

Covered it this morning: I am no fan of an LSU-Alabama rematch, but if you are picking the top two teams and that's who ends up in the top 2, it's a hell of a lot more cynical to deny that than to deal with the notion of a rematch.

DanShanoff.com Ballot - Week 13

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
3	Arkansas Razorbacks	2
4	Houston Cougars	5
5	Georgia Bulldogs	6
6	TCU Horned Frogs	4
7	Boise St. Broncos	5
8	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	-5
9	Virginia Tech Hokies	5
10	USC Trojans	10
11	Oregon Ducks	-7
12	Stanford Cardinal	-6
13	South Carolina Gamecocks	--
14	Michigan St. Spartans	1
15	Kansas St. Wildcats	1
16	Michigan Wolverines	5
17	Clemson Tigers	-9
18	Baylor Bears	7
19	Wisconsin Badgers	-2
20	Penn St. Nittany Lions	4
21	Auburn Tigers	--
22	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	--
23	Nebraska Cornhuskers	-4
24	Virginia Cavaliers	--
25	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	--
Dropouts: Oklahoma Sooners, Texas A&M Aggies, Southern Miss. Golden Eagles, West Virginia Mountaineers

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

11/20 (Very) Quickie

2011-11-20T09:20:00.002-05:00

Let's reiterate yesterday's point: Gosh, isn't college football awesome?

USC's win at Oregon would have been big enough -- it knocked Oregon out of the national-championship debate just 12 hours after the meme was "Alabama or Oregon?"

(I hate USC and loathe Lane Kiffin, but it's hard not to credit them for a season-making win.)

But Baylor's win over Oklahoma was the sweetest. OU fans have been sitting there since their season-killing loss to Texas Tech talking about how they would ride the BCS madness all the way to the BCS title game, as if it was a foregone conclusion they would beat everyone along the way.

Baylor vivisected the Sooners. Robert Griffin III re-established himself as one of the best (and certainly the most exciting) player in the country, and if I had a Heisman vote, I would give it to Griffin ahead of Luck. Griffin's performance last night was an instant classic.

And so here's where we stand w/r/t the BCS: LSU is in if they win out. Alabama will probably be in if they beat Auburn next week, even without playing in the SEC title game. Arkansas will likely make it if they beat LSU, but there are some funky SEC tie-breaker issues that would actually put Alabama into the SEC title game ahead of Arkansas or LSU if the former beats the latter.

The rest of the country is largely out of the equation. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say LSU throttles Arkansas next week -- this week's upsets are the best bulletin-board material -- and Alabama takes care of business.

In the end, I hate the idea of an LSU-Alabama rematch in the title game. However: Every other big contender had their shot to keep winning and play their way over Alabama. Every one. And even knowing all that, they couldn't get it done, largely against inferior competition.

That is arguably the most compelling thing about college football -- not championship contenders rising to the occasion, but championship contenders stumbling unexpectedly.

If the challenge to voters and fans and the system is to find the best two teams to pit in the national title game, the match-up is LSU vs. Alabama. Yes, even if they played before.

It's not ideal and it speaks to a broken system, but it's certainly less cynical and less flawed than artificially vaulting an inferior team ahead of Alabama, just for the sake of variety or out of pique at the system.

After last week's situation of missing Red Zone Channel, we're back in front of Scott Hanson all day. Should be a typically fun Sunday. Enjoy it, folks.

-- D.S.

11/19 (Iowa State) Quickie

2011-11-19T09:23:00.002-05:00

Last night is why I love college football.

I love that expectations -- OK State beating Iowa State was taken as a GIVEN -- can be so obliterated.

I love that an underdog can earn its greatest football win ever, coming back from a deep hole, no less.

I love that it was in front of the home fans, because the rush-the-field after a huge win like that is the best optics in college football. I love that it was on ESPN and was the "only game in town."

And that's all before the mess the BCS has turned into.

But before we dig into the relative merits of 1-loss Alabama verus 1-loss Oregon (I think 1-loss Oklahoma is sunk, even if they beat Oklahoma State), let last night be a reminder:

One of the greatest things about college football is the penchant for the unexpected.

Do I think that LSU will roll over Mississippi, then Arkansas, then Georgia? Yes, but the point is that you never know and that you are crazy to make assumptions about how things will play out. (The only thing we know is that LSU alone controls its own destiny, all the way to a title.)

I remain steadfastly against The Rematch -- either LSU vs. Alabama or LSU vs. Oregon. But at this rate (again: at this rate! I don't even pay attention to my own lessons), that's what we're getting.

*Condolences to the Oklahoma State community.
*Here's to a full recovery and long life for Joe Paterno.
*Jim Boeheim is putting all his chips on his guy.
*CFB Today: After last night, do I really need to pick an Upset Special?

-- D.S.

11/18 (Tebow) Quickie

2011-11-18T08:32:00.002-05:00

There's no need for Tebow triumphalism this morning.

Fans and haters alike can agree that the game-winning 95-yard drive he engineered in the final few minutes -- against a playoff-quality Jets D -- was pretty impressive.

Fans and haters alike can agree that the first 55 minutes of the game were pretty ugly. Partly that was Tebow, partly the Broncos' play-calling, partly the Jets' D. (FWIW: Most non-Brady QBs struggle against the Jets.)

Fans and haters alike can agree that Tebow makes the game exciting. He makes it fun. Part of the charm is that whichever side you are on, you can find something in last night.

You can poke holes in his 4-1 record this season, absolutely, but it's really hard to ignore the "4-1" part. (Let's also credit a very good Broncos D, led by jaw-droppingly good rookie Von Miller.)

I'm an unabashed Tebow fan. But this morning, even the haters have to begrudgingly admit that final drive was as stunning as it was fun (even if they lament the torrent of Tebow coverage today).

More:
*The Syracuse scandal feels a lot different than Penn State.
*Kershaw wins NL Cy: Some good news for otherwise depressed Dodgers fans.
*Cubs hire Dale Sveum: The proof is in the playoff appearances.
*CFB This Weekend: Game Day in Houston? In an otherwise weak week, I like it.
*I'm not a NASCAR fan, but I'm in for a finale that sets up as a one-on-one battle for the title.

-- D.S.

11/17 (Message Board) Quickie

2011-11-17T09:18:00.002-05:00

The new New York Times report on Penn State is must-read. Here it is. Among the key details: Second Mile files are missing. (Go figure.) The Penn State lawyers never knew. (WTF?)

And this, which is the focus of the headline and the lead of the story, but largely ignored beyond that: It was a message board posting that helped investigators crack the case by leading them to McQueary for his statement of what he saw in 2002.

Consider that for a second: You're a die-hard Penn State fan hanging out on -- say -- the Scout.com "Fight On State" message boards, as you constantly do.

One day, some guy is seemingly trolling the boards by talking about a coach who saw Sandusky raping a kid in the locker room.

The next day, that "troll" is the de facto hero of the case -- the truth-teller whose message-board raving turns out to be THE detail that cracks the case, because investigators took it more seriously than the denizens of the message board, who almost assuredly wanted nothing to do with it.

It is kind of a stunning twist. I wrote about it for Quickish. Check it out here.

More:

*Tebow vs. the Jets tonight: It's going to be the most-watched NFL Network game of all time. That's not saying much, but it sure feels must-see, even if you don't like Tebow or the Jets.

*College Hoops: Undoubtedly, I'm filing away Long Beach State's win at Pitt for next March, where I will refer to it in a way that convinces me to take LBS out of the first round. It's nice to know that my bracket is already on the way to being busted.

*MLB Awards: Hard to argue with Maddon (my favorite MLB manager) and Gibson. NL Cy today -- Kershaw? Hard to argue, but Roy Halladay certainly deserves some consideration.

-- D.S.

For some good context on college football message boards, check out this column by Bryan Curtis from the NYT's old sports magazine Play.

11/16 (K) Quickie

2011-11-16T09:15:00.003-05:00

*903 for Coach K: Best men's college basketball coach of all time. (And I say that as someone who is a Duke-hater.)

*Kentucky is going to be good: Then again, Calipari-era Kentucky always has the talent to be elite -- the real question is: Can they win the national title? Calipari's system is brilliant, but only to the extent that it ensures he always has the talent to be "Final Four" good. Betting they'll fall short when it matters most in April.

*Side note: I must have been reading too many tweets last night about Anthony Davis' unibrow, because last night I actually had a dream that during halftime, he had the middle plucked or waxed. I found myself feeling disappointed about that.

*Penn State update: Unclear why Mike McQueary didn't say all this stuff from the leaked email a week ago. Meanwhile, watch Jon Stewart's take on the Costas/Sandusky interview. It kind of sums up what we all were thinking.

*MLB Awards: Justin Verlander wins AL ~~MVP~~ Cy. One of the most dominating seasons by a starting pitcher in recent memory. I said this midseason: He is on my short list of players I'd really like to see in person.

*John Fox can mock Tim Tebow all he wants (and he kinda did, all while basking in largely undeserved credit for finally letting his coordinators create an offense that plays to Tebow's strengths and masks his weaknesses), but Broncos-Jets tomorrow night is going to get everyone's attention -- it's going to be the highest-rated Thursday night game ever.

More later. Give Quickish a try today! (And tell a friend!)

-- D.S.

11/14 (Monday) Quickie

2011-11-13T23:28:00.003-05:00

So, yes: Tebow. Two passes completed. Two TDs (one rushing, one passing). One win. Lots and lots (and lots) of discussion about him by the media this week in advance of a Thursday night game against the Jets.

I'll only say this: Today's game was exactly what I have been asking for for a year -- an offense that accentuates Tebow's unique strengths and skills. Complemented by a very solid Broncos D, it turns out that is more than enough to beat a Chiefs team that isn't what it was a few weeks ago, but is certainly no pushover at home in KC. Thursday night will be fun.

More NFL notes:
*Two words: John. Skelton.
*I'm OK with Mike Smith's decision to go for it on 4th-and-short in OT.
(I'd trust the short-yardage run game vs. the Saints D over defense vs. Saints O.)
*The Eagles' implosion is way more interesting than if they had won this season.
*What the hell happened to the Lions? (Can't just be Stafford's busted finger.)
*Ah, welcome back, Good Tony Romo.
*I admire that the Colts have just given up.
*Bet the Redskins wish they had decided in Week 1 to start tanking.
*Who had the Seahawks over the Ravens? (Anyone? Anyone? No.)

CFB: So it's pretty simple -- if LSU and Oklahoma State win out, then they will play for the national title. I think there's a chance OK State could lose to Oklahoma, but not with the same enthusiasm I had a few weeks ago (or the same certainty I had about Oregon and Stanford).

But if Oklahoma State loses, it's a toss-up between an Alabama rematch, an Oregon rematch and an Oklahoma shot that overlooks OU's worst-of-the-bunch loss (at home to Texas Tech) and its overrated slate of wins. All of them have their problems.

This week's BlogPoll Top 25 ballot:

DanShanoff.com Ballot - Week 12

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
3	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	1
4	Oregon Ducks	2
5	Arkansas Razorbacks	2
6	Stanford Cardinal	-3
7	Oklahoma Sooners	1
8	Clemson Tigers	1
9	Houston Cougars	1
10	TCU Horned Frogs	--
11	Georgia Bulldogs	3
12	Boise St. Broncos	-7
13	South Carolina Gamecocks	--
14	Virginia Tech Hokies	-3
15	Michigan St. Spartans	4
16	Kansas St. Wildcats	--
17	Wisconsin Badgers	-5
18	Texas A&M Aggies	-1
19	Nebraska Cornhuskers	3
20	USC Trojans	-4
21	Michigan Wolverines	2
22	Southern Miss. Golden Eagles	-2
23	West Virginia Mountaineers	--
24	Penn St. Nittany Lions	--
25	Baylor Bears	--
Dropouts: Texas Longhorns, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Auburn Tigers, Cincinnati Bearcats

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

On Sunday, I had my first experience without Red Zone Channel since before Week 1 -- before I discovered it for myself. In fact, my hotel had me watching Colts-Jaguars, what I called the exact opposite of Red Zone Channel. I'm never being away from home on a fall Sunday again.

-- D.S.

11/12 (Saturday) Quickie

2011-11-12T08:21:00.002-05:00

This has been a week. If you haven't popped by Quickish -- or only come by intermittently -- I really hope you'll check out our Penn State stream to catch up on the very best commentary and analysis on the Penn State story. This is such a brutal story, I find reading really smart or poignant takes on it helps to process it.

I'm actually in Savannah for a family wedding, so I'll keep this brief:

*The aircraft carrier hoops game last night was the coolest visual I have ever seen for a sports event -- even better than what I'd say was the clubhouse leader, the first Winter Classic.

(UNC beat Michigan State, but it could have been my college intramural team playing, because the optics were so staggeringly awesome.)

*Belmont may have lost to Duke at Cameron last night (only by a point), but you just saw hundreds of thousands of fans filing away Belmont for at least a Sweet 16 run on their NCAA Tournament brackets. (Something they were capable of last year, by the way, save being given their absolutely worst match-up by the seeding committee, something unlikely to happen again this year.)

*I'm so glad college hoops is back. And with the NBA season seemingly on the brink of being lost for good (or, at least, until January, as has been predicted for a while), the sport's return has never been more welcome. It's going to be a great year.

*CFB Today: All eyes are on Penn State vs. Nebraska at noon, but the Game of the Day is Oregon at Stanford. This is no gimme: Oregon is a lot better than USC; don't discount the learning experience of getting beaten up by LSU to start the season (Stanford resembles an SEC team, albeit one with a world-class QB). Stanford has the motivation of last year's close loss in Eugene, not to mention the motivation of maintaining a perfect season and a chance at playing for a national title. I'm rooting for Stanford. I think Oregon is going to play the spoiler and win.

*Best news of the week: Wilson Ramos being returned safely to his family.

Updates at Quickish all day.

-- D.S.

11/08 (Paterno) Quickie

2011-11-08T11:03:00.003-05:00

Been going nonstop on the Penn State story. Please check out the Quickish coverage. During a horrible scandal, I'm very proud of the site's ability to help you stay on top of the best takes.

-- D.S.

11/07 (Monday) Quickie

2011-11-07T08:45:00.003-05:00

Still thinking a lot about the Penn State story, which is too horrible.

Today is the day that it moves from the sports pages to mainstream America -- and when the school simply has to do more. Accepting the resignations of the AD and VP of Finance -- at the center of the lies -- just isn't enough, nor is appointing some kind of commission. It is hard to imagine a greater institutional failure, from the lowliest assistant to the highest figure.

It feels inadequate to simply move on to the other big stories, but nevertheless...

A few thoughts about the NFL yesterday:
*Hell of a win by Eli Manning.

*Aaron Rodgers is playing better than any QB I have ever seen.

*Philip Rivers: Yikes.

*Patrick Peterson's walk-off game-winning punt return had me jumping up and down, and I couldn't care less about the Cardinals.

*I sincerely wonder whether John Fox is happy that Tim Tebow played well enough to win, because it means he can't throw him out yet. I was very happy to see the coordinators deploy Tebow as a running QB. Let's table whether that is sustainable; the point is that, game-by-game, it was effective. They better come up with a new wrinkle, because no self-respecting NFL defensive coordinator can't take the tape and a week of prep and not be ready to stop it.

*I did not expect Joe Flacco to lead the Ravens to a win in Pittsburgh. I also would like to hear more about this "Ball So Hard University" that Terrell Suggs appeared to have graduated from.

*Two words: Julio. Jones.

CFB: I'm still on the side of "LSU-Alabama was a phenomenal game." Either defense would obliterate any other contender's offense (and either's offense would steamroll any other contender's defense, which is the even bigger issue). Here's where it gets interesting:

What if Oklahoma State and Stanford both lose (OKS to OU and Stanford to Oregon, next Saturday)? It's hardly like Oklahoma is worthy of meeting LSU for the title. Neither is Alabama. Neither is Oregon, who already lost to LSU on a neutral field. I'd still like to see Boise, even with the ridiculous advantage Boise gets with its weak-in/weak-out schedule.

(That said: CFB's bigger problem is if Oklahoma State and Stanford both go unbeaten. I think Stanford would beat OKS head-to-head, but that's just conjecture. Someone will be left out, and that's going to be a problem. But, yes: These things tend to work themselves out. Let's see what happens with Stanford and Oregon before we go too far.)

NBA Lockout: If the full players membership were given the latest owners' proposal and asked to vote via secret ballot, I think more than 50% would approve it. I don't think we'll lose the season. I think that, as we've been saying for months, the season will start in January sometime after the labor deal gets hammered out in December.

-- D.S.

This Week's BlogPoll Top 25: LSU vs... Anyone?

2011-11-06T22:19:00.002-05:00

I sort of hate myself for doing it, but I kept Alabama at No. 2, because losing by a field goal in overtime to the No. 1 team in the country is hardly disqualifying. I think Bama would throttle Stanford or Boise or Oklahoma State or anyone... besides LSU.

Here's where things get tricky: I am adamant that there not be an Alabama-LSU rematch in the national title game. So: Can I rank Alabama the 2nd-best team in the country while denying them a spot in the title game that pits the top two teams in the country? You bet I can.

DanShanoff.com Ballot - Week 11

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
3	Stanford Cardinal	--
4	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	1
5	Boise St. Broncos	-1
6	Oregon Ducks	--
7	Arkansas Razorbacks	1
8	Oklahoma Sooners	-1
9	Clemson Tigers	2
10	Houston Cougars	-1
11	Virginia Tech Hokies	4
12	Wisconsin Badgers	5
13	South Carolina Gamecocks	-3
14	Georgia Bulldogs	--
15	Texas Longhorns	6
16	USC Trojans	--
17	Texas A&M Aggies	-5
18	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	--
19	Michigan St. Spartans	-3
20	Southern Miss. Golden Eagles	--
21	Auburn Tigers	--
22	Nebraska Cornhuskers	-9
23	Michigan Wolverines	-3
24	Penn St. Nittany Lions	-1
25	Cincinnati Bearcats	--
Dropouts: Kansas St. Wildcats, Texas Tech Red Raiders, Arizona St. Sun Devils, TCU Horned Frogs, West Virginia Mountaineers

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

11/06 (LSU!) Quickie

2011-11-06T00:12:00.003-04:00

Couple of quick thoughts:

*What a win for LSU -- that Alabama team was ridiculous, particularly the D. And to do it in Tuscaloosa? It's a testament to the seasoning LSU went through earlier in the season, with Oregon and Mississippi State and West Virginia.

*I can't believe the folks on Twitter killing the game for being "boring." This was as elite level of defense as you'll see. The Oklahoma State-Kansas State game was full of offense; those guys couldn't stop at a red light. We've seen this: Oklahoma averages 50+ ppg and Florida shuts them down. Ohio State averages 40+ ppg and Florida shuts them down. Alabama throttles Texas. LSU throttles Ohio State. The defense is at another level, and if you didn't realize that when LSU contained Oregon, you realize it now -- and will realize it in January.

*I still think Oklahoma State loses to Oklahoma and Stanford loses to Oregon. I have no idea what happens at that point (I think an LSU-Oregon rematch has as much traction and appeal as an LSU-Alabama rematch), but I'd certainly like to see Boise get a shot at LSU. If Oklahoma State beats Oklahoma and Stanford beats Oregon, it looks like Oklahoma State gets a shot and Stanford gets shut out. I think LSU throttles Oklahoma State.

*Tentative BlogPoll Top 5: (1) LSU, (2) Stanford, (3) Alabama, (4) Oklahoma State, (5) Boise (which isn't exactly dominating lowly UNLV). Oregon right there. Arkansas right there.

A word about Penn State and this scandal: It's horrifying. It's appalling. At this point, I'm OK if you told me Penn State was getting the death penalty. That won't happen, but I do think it indelibly changes our perception of Penn State as a program and Joe Paterno as a legendary coach. The AD should be fired. The president of the university should be fired -- if he won't resign. Joe Paterno should resign. I don't add that last one lightly -- ultimately, you can't give JoePa a pass. You can't say he did his best or that he at least did the minimum asked of him. You can't even lean back on the idea that he's been an empty figurehead for a decade and not responsible. He IS responsible. I don't say that with anything but sadness. But I have no sympathy for Paterno. None. I save my sympathy for those poor victims and their families.

-- D.S.

11/04 (LSU-Alabama) Quickie

2011-11-04T12:35:00.003-04:00

LSU-Alabama is everything you want in a college football game.

It is the two best teams. But, more than that, it is two teams seemingly playing the game at a different level. That's where this is more than just "1-vs-2," which historically has left plenty of room for the idea that No. 3 or 4 or 5 might be in the discussion.

In this case, there is no debate: These are the two best teams, and they will play each other for the presumptive right to play for (and, again, presumably) win the national title.

(This deciding-it-on-the-field stuff matters a lot, no matter how you feel about the BCS. You want a playoff? This is it. It is laughable that the loser of this game will drop in the rankings behind Oklahoma State -- and probably Boise and Stanford -- when the loser of this game is still the second-best team in the country.)

That parenthetical said, I am virulently against a rematch in any form this season -- say, in the national-title game. I don't care if it is the greatest game ever played and we all are begging for four more quarters. What makes this game so amazing is not just that it pits the best two teams, but that it is definitive. If the loser gets a rematch, this game is essentially meaningless -- more meaningless than any game that will be played in college football this season, actually.

The talent. The subplots. The stakes. This game has it all, and I cannot wait. I don't think it's understating to call it -- at least in pre-game theory -- the best match-up of the year, and that includes the Super Bowl, Heat vs. Anyone in the NBA Playoffs, whatever. Now, the game itself might or might not live up to that expectation -- but the expectation is there. By virtue of college football's system, the magnitude of the outcome alone ensures the game has about as much gravity as any championship elimination game has had this year.

Prediction: Alabama, decisively.

And be sure to check out the Alabama-LSU stream on Quickish. It is loaded with awesome stuff.

More:

*Other CFB this weekend: Oklahoma State is going to throttle Kansas State... Expect Stanford and Boise State to put up big style points, too... If not for LSU-Bama, then Arkansas-South Carolina would be a damn good game of the week... Upset Special: Iowa over Michigan (would Texas Tech over Texas in Austin count?)

*NFL: Steelers-Ravens is the Game of the Week, but -- to the point above -- it is largely inconsequential who wins, because both teams seem to have a bead on the playoffs. I mean, the winner gets an edge for a Wild Card bye and home-field advantage, and that's not nothin'. But let's be honest: The game everyone is going to be paying attention to is the Broncos vs. the Raiders, because Tim Tebow remains the most talked-about topic in football, even if that drives everyone a bit crazy. (Fans and haters, alike.)

*NBA Lockout: This whole "decertification" thing feels like a badly executed feint. The union might as well cave now and save what is left of the season.

*MLB Hot Stove: There are few things I want to see more in 2012 than 49-year-old Jamie Moyer pitch in the Major Leagues again.

*Happy 9th anniversary to Around the Horn. I point to my career 0-4 record proudly.

Have a great weekend. Quickish is rocking the whole time.

-- D.S.

11/02 (Pay College Athletes?) Quickie

2011-11-02T12:41:00.003-04:00

What to do about paying college athletes gets a bump today. In this week's SI, George Dohrmann takes a deep dive not on the morality, but simply the feasibility. On Grantland today, Charlie Pierce takes on the morality -- and the NCAA's impossibly FUBAR logic.

I go back to an old Shanoff staple: The crux of the problem is the perceived exploitation of the star college football players, the ones who are worth far more than any college could ever afford to pay them, under any system.

The simplest solution is to create a pro football minor league that allows the best/star players (read: top NFL prospects) to skip college at any point -- before their freshman, sophomore or junior years -- to enter a minor-league system that (a) prepares them for the NFL better than college would/could and (b) pays them rather well for it.

College football would be fine -- it doesn't need "star" players. It needs its teams and its traditions. That college football put an emphasis on its biggest future-NFL talents was a huge reason it got itself into this mess (the media have been complicit). The perceived exploitation -- not to mention the levels of compensation in a pay-for-play system -- would be mitigated.

The players would be better off: They would be getting paid. They would be focused full-time on maximizing their NFL potential. Back on campus, scholarship slots would be given to players with no pro future -- the ones for whom a full-ride college scholarship helps set them up for a non-football future.

The NFL would be better off: The league doesn't need the marketing bump of college football to get fans excited about its rookie players. And instead of college players learning college systems and playing for coaches with no incentive to train them for a pro career, they enter a system whose entire rationale is to maximize their NFL potential. While paying them.

I wish Mark Cuban would stop futzing around with a college playoff when the more valuable arbitrage is so obviously the three-year gap between the moment a star player enters college football and the moment they leave for the NFL Draft.

If the minor league gets a nominal, reasonable piece of the players' financial future (we're talking fewer percentage points than an agent would demand), the minor league could be self-sustaining within a few years. There is even a compelling (and ironic) case it be created as a non-profit.

-- D.S.

11/01 (Flag Football) Quickie

2011-11-01T10:30:00.004-04:00

Excuse me, but I'm a little obsessed with Kevin Durant spontaneously showing up at an Oklahoma State frat flag-football game and playing, because one of the frat guys tweeted him about it.

(I appreciate the frat guy's hustle. When I was in college, I was the intramurals impresario for my house.)

Despite my complete aversion to tackle football as a sport any kid should be playing (or any parent should be letting a kid play), I have Gabe signed up for flag football, starting this Saturday. I guess I need to look into getting him a Durant Sigma Nu No. 35 jersey.

Meanwhile...

*Good for Tony La Russa: Impressive ending to an already Hall of Fame career.

*The Tim Tebow backlash (aka "The Tebacklash"): Can't say the schadenfreude was unexpected. I follow this pretty carefully (obviously) and think he'll get 3-4 more starts from John Fox, then get benched for the rest of the season (barring injury to Brady Quinn), then get cut in the offseason (then get signed by Bill Belichick, who will turn him into a QB/RB/FB/TE/WR hybrid who scored 10+ TDs per season).

*Chargers blow it: Yeesh.

*MLB Hot Stove: Yankees lock up CC Sabathia by throwing an extra $30M or so at him for a year down the road. Good move by both sides.

*NBA Lockout: I'm a little obsessed with the "amnesty" stuff. Prediction: The team that wins the NBA title will have in its playoff rotation at least one amnestied player.

*Kardashian and Humphries divorce after 72 days: Everything's kind of been said, hasn't it?

*Congrats to my pals at SB Nation -- now Vox Media -- on the re-branding of the parent company and the official launch of The Verge, instantly one of the great tech-news sites.

It's November already?

-- D.S.

This Week's BlogPoll Top 25 Ballot

2011-10-31T09:34:00.002-04:00

The winner of LSU-Alabama will play for the national title (unless the winner of that game has some kind of freakish epic upset later this season). That is a phenomenal outcome -- among the best you can get in an inherently flawed system -- when the two best teams can play each other and the winner gets a clear shot at the national title. (And, really, does anyone think that Stanford or Oklahoma State or Boise can really beat the LSU-Alabama winner? Or LSU-Alabama loser, for that matter.) The other spot is Oklahoma State's to lose... that is, until they lose to Oklahoma. Then it's Stanford's to lose... that is, until they lose to Oregon. And then we'll have a ravaging national debate about whether Boise's unbeaten record built on top of a middling schedule deserves preference over a 1-loss team (Oregon or Oklahoma, neither of which have proven themselves worthy of a title shot) with a vastly superior schedule. Here's this week's ballot:

DanShanoff.com Ballot - Week 10

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
3	Stanford Cardinal	2
4	Boise St. Broncos	--
5	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	-2
6	Oregon Ducks	--
7	Oklahoma Sooners	1
8	Arkansas Razorbacks	2
9	Houston Cougars	6
10	South Carolina Gamecocks	4
11	Clemson Tigers	-4
12	Texas A&M Aggies	1
13	Nebraska Cornhuskers	5
14	Kansas St. Wildcats	-2
15	Virginia Tech Hokies	1
16	Michigan St. Spartans	-5
17	Wisconsin Badgers	-8
18	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	--
19	Texas Tech Red Raiders	-2
20	Michigan Wolverines	-1
21	Texas Longhorns	--
22	Arizona St. Sun Devils	-2
23	Penn St. Nittany Lions	-2
24	TCU Horned Frogs	--
25	West Virginia Mountaineers	--
Dropouts: Baylor Bears, USC Trojans, Cincinnati Bearcats

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

10/30 (Luck!) Quickie

2011-10-30T11:27:00.003-04:00

Remember a few weeks ago when so many "experts" were worried about 4 or 5 or even 6 unbeaten teams this season? Ha: Quaint times.

We're down to just a handful now, after Clemson pulled a Clemson and K-State felt Oklahoma's wrath (let's not even speak of poor Wisconsin).

Stanford barely survived its trip to USC -- Andrew Luck looked brilliant (well, except for the pick-6 that could have cost the Cardinal its dream season). Stanford will lose to Oregon.

Oklahoma State throttled Baylor -- a very good Baylor team, I thought. The Cowboys have some swagger... just enough to peek past rival Oklahoma to the BCS title game. OKS will lose, too.

There is the winner of LSU-Alabama next week -- as it should be, at least one half of the national championship picture settled on the field, head-to-head -- and then... who?

I'd like to see Boise, even though I think Boise's schedule is a sham and a scam. As usual, there are probably a dozen teams in the country that could go unbeaten with Boise's schedule. I try not to let that obscure that they are, in fact, a terrific team in the absolute sense. (Frankly, I'm unclear that Boise could hold off Houston, another prolific unbeaten with even less of a chance of playing for the national title than Boise.)

But what we have -- and this is mostly perennially -- is the excitement that a single loss ruins aspirations for more (as if an ACC title and BCS bowl game is a terrible outcome for Clemson) and the clarity that comes with sports' most exciting and most(ly) meaningful regular season.

Clemson didn't make it. Stanford is still going. Oklahoma State looks strong. And the rest of us are captivated along the way.

-- D.S.

(Oh, NFL Week 8 today, so it's Red Zone Channel all day. Pats-Steelers might be the Game of the Week, but you should expect plenty of coverage of Tebow vs. the Lions.)

10/29 (Cardinals!) Quickie

2011-10-29T10:06:00.002-04:00

What an amazing World Series champion -- one of the most unique in baseball history. You don't have to be a Cardinals fan to appreciate what they did (or, more importantly, how they did it).

They came back from 10+ games behind at the end of August. They played a big role in "Game 162." They beat Roy Halladay in an elimination game. They played in that unreal Game 6 on Thursday night. The rain-out let Carpenter pitch in Game 7. They have the best player of the generation (yes, who might leave in a few weeks). They have a polarizing manager. They have a group of no-names and reclamation projects and hometown kids and mid-season trades. They have a World Series championship and the accompanying baseball immortality.

More than anything -- and apologies in advance for the trite observation -- it reminds that just when you think sports can't get any more amazing, they do.

College Football Saturday: LSU and Bama have a bye week to get ready for each other next week in the Game of the Year, but plenty of intriguing games on the schedule today:

*Is at USC the trap game for Stanford? (Remember when Stanford was the trap game for Pete Carroll?)

*Is this the week (at GA Tech) that Clemson finally pulls a Clemson? (Yes.)

*Can Baylor and Robert Griffin keep up with Oklahoma State in Stillwater? (Unlikely.)

*Does a bitter Oklahoma take out last week's season-killing disappointment on still-unbeaten K-State in Manhattan? (Yes.)

*Does a bitter Wisconsin take out last week's season-killing disappointment on Ohio State? (Yes.)

*What's the "let-down" factor for Michigan State at Nebraska? (Big enough.)

*Has Georgia-Florida ever been less exciting? (In 11 years of avidly following, nope.)

*Nominal Upset Specials: Tennessee over Lattimore-less South Carolina in Knoxville, Purdue over Michigan in Ann Arbor. Oklahoma over Kansas State doesn't count.

So maybe Stanford, Oklahoma State and Clemson will all win -- although, after last week's insanity, the chance is better than not that one of them will stumble -- but each team gets a chance to bolster its resume and reputation with a quality win.

-- D.S.

10/28 (Cardinals! Game 6! Holy S--t!) Quickie

2011-10-28T09:08:00.002-04:00

As a sports fan, I live for those rare moments of pure unexpected drama-infused joy-hysteria-awesomeness. Last night was one of them.

Without hyperbole or typical "instant-history" crazy, it was one of the greatest baseball games of all time.

Joe Buck takes a lot of grief, but even he nailed the perfect climactic note, echoing his father's famous "We will see you tomorrow night!" from the walk-off Game 6 20 years ago.

I want to do it justice here, but I'm not sure I can. Instead, I'm putting all my energy into Quickish -- into creating the best collection of columns, front pages, videos and Tweets you'll find anywhere.

Please give it a look (and pass it along to your friends). What a night and what a day-after. (And Game 7 coming tonight. Whew.)

-- D.S.

The Night the Red Sox Won the World Series

2011-10-27T18:35:00.002-04:00

So 7 years ago tonight the Red Sox won the World Series. I was leaving the next morning for my honeymoon, and I knew I wouldn't be able to write about it after the fact.

But the Sox winning the World Series was such a HUGE deal that I just had to have my say. So in the Quickie before that Game 4 the Sox clinched the title, I wrote everything I would have said had I been writing the next morning, one of the more memorable columns for me:

Two Words For You:
REALLY. OVER.

It's over, and this time I really mean it.

There will be no historic 0-3 comeback. We've already had one of those. Laugh at the people who cite the ALCS as some kind of precedent.

Once you give yourself over to the only conclusion possible, it hits you like very few feelings you've ever had as a sports fan:

The Red Sox.

Are gonna win.

The championship.

I'm so sure that Boston is going to capture their first world title since 1918, that I'm going to pre-empt the series' remaining games and write a "Sox Win!" lead today, to beat the crowds.

(Okay, I'm also doing it because I'll be on my honeymoon starting tomorrow -- and it's so wrong that I might miss commenting this moment.)

Break out the champagne ...

Sox Win!?!?
"Pre-printed" from after the Sox eventually win, despite the hostility today from my "believe-it-but-can't" RSN friends to stop me:

What the hell happens next? For sports fans everywhere, the reality we have all known, grown up with and lived with for our entire lives will change.

What's that? Jumping the gun?

No more Curse? No more New England fatalism? No more self-loathing?

RSN is averting their eyes...

Clocks will be re-set: Not Daylight Savings, but some kind of Spiritual Savings, at least for Red Sox Nation.

Protest howls! (And peeking?)

As for the rest of us, we can simply bask in experiencing something that no one younger than 86 has ever been around for.

It's okay, Sox fans. Embrace it! I'm already on the other side, and I can tell you: It's the most liberating sense you've ever had!

Fun times.

-- D.S.

10/27 (Tebowing) Quickie

2011-10-27T16:05:00.002-04:00

I'm in the 99th percentile of people who pay attention to the Tim Tebow phenomenon, and even I have to step back and marvel that two days ago some dude created "Tebowing."

Game 6 can't get here fast enough.

10/26 (Game 6) Quickie

2011-10-26T12:37:00.002-04:00

*Would love to have the World Series Game 6 tonight -- unclear if the weather will accommodate. It'll change the pitching availability a bit at the margins, particularly for a Game 7. (Game 6 pick: Cards)

*I don't mind admitting that the NBA Lockout discussion -- which is full-throttle, every day, if you're following NBA folks on Twitter -- is wearing me out. I think I'm in the silent majority (which includes plenty of NBA media) that sympathizes with the players but would rather see the season start now than the players get a fair deal. It's abhorrent but true.

*As I have been since the start, I am totally down with Theo in Chicago. As a die-hard Cubs fan as a child (if not today), I can get behind this.

*More good Tebow analysis.

Pop by Quickish for a bunch of good recommendations (on a surprisingly slow day).

-- D.S.

10/25 (La Russa) Quickie

2011-10-25T11:00:00.003-04:00

What happened last night in the bottom of the 8th inning -- La Russa's debacle -- was so inexplicable (literally and metaphorically) and so unexpected (not to mention so critical in the grand scheme of winning a World Series title) that I found myself rooting on the insanity.

Partly, that's because I'm not a huge La Russa fan. Partly, that's because I enjoyed the irony of the folks who just a few nights ago were praising TLR as a genius now burying him. Partly, that's because it was just so damn fascinating.

Frankly, this is what Quickish was made for: This morning, I've pulled together the best reactions to La Russa. Quickish showcases a money quote, but you can click through to read all the various rippings of the manager, all deserved.

(It's worth noting that if the guy had simply said: "Cripes, did I mess up," it's mitigated. But by obfuscating and throwing his coaches under a bus, he compounds his initial problems. Remember: The cover-up -- in whatever form it takes -- is almost always worse than the crime.)

NFL MNF WTF: I didn't watch, but from all accounts, the Ravens-Jaguars game -- featuring what I think we can all agree was a stunning JAX upset of a team many thought was a contender in the AFC -- was a dog. I will say this: I won my fantasy league week in dramatic come-from-behind fashion thanks to Josh Scobee. So there's that.

Have you seen that Wade-CP3-Melo TV ad yet? It might be my favorite ad since the Volkswagen Super Bowl "Star Wars Kid" ad. Check it out here. I don't want to spoil it, but let me just say that I thought I had seen my favorite part when -- BOOM -- the ad takes it to an entirely new level of awesome.

More later.

-- D.S.

10/24 (Tebow) Quickie

2011-10-24T09:09:00.002-04:00

As a longtime Tebow-watcher, the defining moment for me of yesterday's Are-You-Not-Entertained?! game was just after Prater kicked the game-winning field goal in OT. Tebow's reaction was to drop to a knee, then calmly walk around hugging his teammates. No jumping around. No histrionics.

Tebow was clearly glad to have won the game, but he clearly understood that his performance for the first 55 minutes was sub-par. Partly that was him, partly that was the typically orthodox-to-a-fault Broncos coaches' play-calling.

When things opened up in the furious final few minutes -- the first successful NFL comeback from 15 points down with 3 minutes to play in 40 years -- good things happened. John Fox could learn a lesson from that.

Prepare yourselves: It's going to be a long week of Tebow mania -- not from me, but from the mainstream media; I'm demure by comparison. I think it's fair -- even predictable -- that Tebow's performance gave both the fans and the haters something to latch on to. Wouldn't be any other way.

Other notes from NFL Week 7: Drew Brees was incredible, even if it was against the Colts... Aaron Rodgers' 2011 season is quite possibly the greatest I have ever seen by any NFL player (or perhaps any team-sport athlete)... Love the breakouts, including DeMarco Murray's... I have to admit: I thought Carson Palmer would be a lot better (then again, that's a low bar).

CFB: LSU-Alabama? Yes! Twice? No! I said this below -- I think that LSU and Alabama are clearly the two best teams in the country, and that won't change after they play on November 5. But this idea of a rematch in the event the other unbeaten teams get nicked (and it could easily happen -- OK St losing to Okla and Stanford losing to Oregon and Clemson losing to anyone) is brutal. The amazingness of the game on Nov. 5 is that it is a de facto playoff; that is entirely undercut if the idea is that the loser gets another shot. I'm aggressively anti-Rematch.

(I am, however, rooting for the above-mentioned unbeatens to lose; I'd love to see a LSU-Bama winner vs. Boise national title game, even though there is an entirely fair argument that penalizing a 1-loss team (or teams) for having an infinitely more difficult schedule than unbeaten Boise is patently unfair.)

MLB: Derek Holland's mustache is as amazing as his performance last night. This is one hell of an entertaining World Series, and the idea that it's now a best-of-3, with Carpenter vs. Wilson tonight in the so-called "pivotal" Game 5, is quickly bringing this Series up the all-time best-ever rankings.

-- D.S.

This Week's BlogPoll Top 25 Ballot

2011-10-24T07:28:00.002-04:00

It's LSU and Alabama. I'm already weary of the ludicrous talk that there could be a rematch for the national title. I hate that idea -- it diminishes the game on Nov. 5. If they're just going to play again, who cares who wins? The whole idea is that whoever wins this game on Nov. 5 means EVERYTHING. It's a de facto playoff, which is a huge part of its appeal. I'm 100% against the "rematch" idea.

DanShanoff.com Ballot - Week 9

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
3	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	4
4	Boise St. Broncos	1
5	Stanford Cardinal	1
6	Oregon Ducks	2
7	Clemson Tigers	2
8	Oklahoma Sooners	-4
9	Wisconsin Badgers	-6
10	Arkansas Razorbacks	--
11	Michigan St. Spartans	5
12	Kansas St. Wildcats	7
13	Texas A&M Aggies	-2
14	South Carolina Gamecocks	-2
15	Houston Cougars	-2
16	Virginia Tech Hokies	2
17	Texas Tech Red Raiders	--
18	Nebraska Cornhuskers	-1
19	Michigan Wolverines	3
20	Arizona St. Sun Devils	-5
21	Penn St. Nittany Lions	--
22	Baylor Bears	3
23	USC Trojans	--
24	Cincinnati Bearcats	--
25	West Virginia Mountaineers	-11
Dropouts: Auburn Tigers, Georgia Bulldogs, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, SMU Mustangs

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

Happy 10th Anniversary, PTI

2011-10-21T10:00:00.001-04:00

PTI -- celebrating its 10th anniversary on Saturday -- is the best TV show in the history of sports television. Period. The end.

(Here's what I said last year on the 9th anniversary.)

10/21 (Weekend Watch) Quickie

2011-10-20T23:15:00.002-04:00

First, a happy 10th anniversary to PTI, the best show in the history of sports television.

Rangers tie up World Series: After a day of glowing reviews for Tony La Russa's managerial prowess, it was only natural that he out-think himself into blowing the 9th-inning lead for the Cards.

NBA: The mediation between the players and owners imploded. It's not that I think the season will be cancelled; I do think that it's unlikely it will get started until January 2012. You're totally allowed to ignore the moment-to-moment coverage until there is a resolution.

CFB Preview: The Game of the Week is Wisconsin at Michigan State. I predict the Badgers win by 30. Can we please insert them into the discussion with Oklahoma as the Best Team Not Alabama-LSU Winner?

*Other games of note: Auburn at LSU, with LSU missing the Honey Badger and their killer of an RB, Ware. If Auburn didn't look so horrible last week beating Florida, I might give Auburn a chance here. But it won't be close.

*Upset Special: Well, Clemson is due for their mid-season implosion, aren't they? (Last week was just foreshadowing.) I'd love to have the guts to pick Washington over Stanford, but I'm firmly on the Luck bandwagon. Kansas State losing at Kansas would be hilarious.

My Favorite NFL Storylines:
*Tebow: Tebow, Tebow, Tebow. You know you're following it.
*Carson Palmer in Oakland: Good thing the Chiefs are terrible.
*Must-Win for... Atlanta in Detroit? Jets at home vs. Chargers?
*Laughable mismatch: Packers at Vikings
*Cam Newton Watch: Home vs. Redskins
*Suck for Luck Update: Easy loss for the Colts at N.O. And the biggest reason I think Tebow will have a great game vs. Miami is that the Dolphins are in full-on tank mode, especially against a team that would potentially be a "Suck for Luck" contender with a loss in Miami.

Business: The NFL is launching a VC fund. I got up to stretch my legs a bit with a brief analysis about it for CNBC.com. Check it out here.

Have a great weekend. Great stuff all day today (and all weekend long) at Quickish.

-- D.S.

10/20 (La Russa) Quickie

2011-10-20T12:46:00.003-04:00

So the dominant storyline this morning is that Tony La Russa's managing moves were on full display last night in the Cards' taut Game 1 win over the Rangers. (The flip side, of course, is that La Russa didn't simply do clever things, but he out-managed Ron Washington.)

To the extent that the MLB manager has substantial power over a game's result -- and, at the margins, they most certainly do -- La Russa has put on a clinic this month. When he goes into the Hall of Fame, this will be his defining display.

Theo to the Cubs is nearly done: And he's apparently taking Quickie favorite Jed Hoyer with him.

LSU going to be missing Mathieu and Ware on Saturday: If this was the Alabama game, LSU would be screwed. Against largely hapless Auburn, they'll be fine.

CBB Coaches' Top 25: UNC is No. 1, obviously. Most notable for me: Belmont -- widely considered a Cinderella favorite in the Butler mold -- didn't get a single vote for any coach, not even for the No. 25 pity slot.

Tebow mania: Whether you like it or not (and I'd argue you should like it), it is going to be THE storyline on Sunday. Really good piece on Tebow from the cover of ESPN Mag. (And I'm pretty critical of most Tebow coverage; Keown really did a good job here.)

- D.S.

10/19 (Game 1) Quickie

2011-10-19T09:00:00.002-04:00

*Cardinals in 7: All signs point to the Rangers winning the World Series -- that lineup! that bullpen! And yet, all signs have pointed to the Cardinals facing oblivion for months, and that hasn't stopped them from advancing. The irony is that "This Time It Counts" will actually... count.

*Raiders trade for Carson Palmer: If Palmer is healthy? OK, maybe this works out for Oakland. I give them credit for trying to win now, with the playoffs in sight, rather than simply folding up. That said: The Bengals pulled in a haul -- one 1st-round pick, possibly two? Bravo, Mike Brown.

*Suck for Luck update: Or should that be "Luck's Run Out?" I read this item yesterday that Team Luck is more sophisticated and aggressive than even Team Eli, and you remember how that went on draft day. (Actually, a whole lot of griping by the media about the Mannings, quickly forgotten, particularly when Eli led the Giants to a Super Bowl title.)

Here's the upshot: If you think that just because your team tanks 0-16, you're definitely going to secure Andrew Luck, you're making a tenuous assumption. There's no reason that the Lucks won't pick their franchise and demand a draft-day trade to that franchise.

*Vikings bench McNabb, start Ponder: By all accounts, Ponder isn't ready. But McNabb has been terrible, and the Vikings might as well figure out whether the high draft pick they spent on Ponder last year is worth it. I'm all for giving the rookie some experience.

*NBA Lockout: I follow a lot of people on Twitter for Quickish, and nothing has been more wince-inducing than the coverage from the cadre of NBA reporters staking out the mediation between the owners and players. That is one bored, pathetic bunch.

*LeBron is No. 1 on ESPN's Top 400 ranking of NBA players: As he should be. (That doesn't mean that we all can't feverishly root against him.)

Lots of great stuff at Quickish. If you missed yesterday, roll on by this morning to catch up fast. Otherwise, pop by throughout the day to keep up with the best takes on the biggest topics.

-- D.S.

This Week's BlogPoll Top 25 Ballot

2011-10-18T07:13:00.000-04:00

DanShanoff.com Ballot - Week 8

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
3	Wisconsin Badgers	--
4	Oklahoma Sooners	--
5	Boise St. Broncos	--
6	Stanford Cardinal	--
7	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	--
8	Oregon Ducks	--
9	Clemson Tigers	--
10	Arkansas Razorbacks	--
11	Texas A&M Aggies	--
12	South Carolina Gamecocks	--
13	Houston Cougars	1
14	West Virginia Mountaineers	2
15	Arizona St. Sun Devils	2
16	Michigan St. Spartans	--
17	Nebraska Cornhuskers	2
18	Virginia Tech Hokies	2
19	Kansas St. Wildcats	2
20	Auburn Tigers	-5
21	Georgia Bulldogs	--
22	Michigan Wolverines	-4
23	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	-10
24	SMU Mustangs	--
25	Baylor Bears	-3
Dropouts: Texas Longhorns, Florida Gators, Illinois Fighting Illini

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

10/17 (Harbaugh vs. Schwartz) Quickie

2011-10-17T07:36:00.002-04:00

NFL Week 6: The story, of course, is the Harbaugh-Schwartz handshake smackdown after the 49ers shocked the Lions in Detroit.

Here's where I net out: Jim Harbaugh WAS over-enthusiastic, and he sure as hell earned the right to be. I don't buy that there's a handshake "protocol" -- Jim Schwartz (no stranger to what some might call "showing up" opposing teams and coaches from his sidelines) was just sore that he lost; he is entirely entitled to be a bit pissy. But in that scenario, Schwartz has got to keep his cool and not make it into a bigger deal.

If we're in the fault-assignment business, I'd give more -- way more, actually -- to Schwartz than Harbaugh. But the larger point is this: Is there even a problem here? Oh, the prudes will have a field day -- either griping about Harbaugh's enthusiasm or Schwartz's response. The fact is that it's amazing that both coaches reacted the way they did. It's human and it's endearing.

Answers to questions you didn't ask:
*Did the Eagles turn around their season? No.
*Is it possible the Vikings are even worse than the Colts? Yes.
*What will be the dominant NFL story of the week? Easy: Tim Tebow.

Cardinals win the NL pennant: The most improbable baseball pennant-winner of all time? A case could be made for the 2008 Rays, sheerly on economics, but circumstantially, these Cards are right up there. What an easy team to root for in the World Series against Texas.

BCS: As expected, it's LSU-Alabama at 1-2 -- for now. They'll play each other and one will seemingly secure a spot in the national-title game. Interestingly, Oklahoma-Oklahoma State could be a play-in game, too.

There's a lot of talk today about the logjam of quality unbeatens outside of that four, including Wisconsin, Stanford and Boise State. First, let's let the season play itself out; more often than not, these things take care of themselves in unpredictable ways.

But I can't put to fine a point on it: The quickest path to imploding the BCS isn't 4 or 5 unbeaten teams. It's a 1-loss SEC champ being left out of the national title game.

RIP Dan Wheldon: As a dad of two young kids, I couldn't stop thinking about Wheldon last night. What a sad story. And good man.

-- D.S.

10/16 (Sunday) Quickie

2011-10-16T08:20:00.002-04:00

*Last night, I was so miffed by Florida's performance against Auburn that I wrote a 2,000-word post all about it. I'm not going to publish it, but it was nominally cathartic. The gist was that in 11 years as a Florida fan, last night was the least enjoyable game I have watched, and I mostly blame that on offensive coordinator Charlie Weis. You don't want to read the rest.

*CFB: Apparently, Oklahoma is going to be No. 1 when the first BCS rankings come out tomorrow. Unclear how Oklahoma jumped Alabama and LSU from last week's projections, given that Oklahoma beat a terrible Kansas team and Alabama and LSU beat comparatively better SEC teams. But no matter: Does anyone really think that if/when Oklahoma plays the Alabama/LSU winner, the SEC champ won't throttle the Sooners?

*MLB: Congrats to Rangers fans on a second straight AL pennant and second straight trip to the World Series. Texas will be favored over either the Brewers or Cardinals. Manager Ron Washington might produce head-scratching moments and the starting pitching might be impressively "just OK," but there's no denying the combination of the power of the lineup and the power of the bullpen.

*NFL: All I know is that the six hours I spend in front of the Red Zone Channel every Sunday afternoon has redefined my relationship with pro football. I don't even care who is playing, because the whole experience is just so awesome.

Enjoy the day, everyone.

-- D.S.

10/14 (Midnight Madness) Quickie

2011-10-14T14:03:00.003-04:00

When you're a parent, your own birthday becomes so vastly subordinate to the birthdays of your kids that, really, your kids' birthdays are the real event every year.

My second son Jonah turns 3 today. It started this morning with chocolate donuts -- a Shanoff family birthday tradition -- and will continue with a small pirate-themed party and a lot of presents over the weekend.

He's a sweet little boy -- it's amazing to see how different he is than his older brother. That's partly a function of being a younger brother, I'm sure, and not just because of sibling dynamics. For example, Gabe didn't watch much TV at all until he was closer to 3; Jonah has been watching TV actively since he was about one and a half. But Jonah is just a different kid -- more coordinated than Gabe at that age, but much less articulate. More polite but less patient. The year ahead is going to be exciting for him. When Gabe was 3, I took him to that college hoops game at St. Francis; I'm sure I'll do something similar with Jonah, who loves basketball even more than Gabe does.

Speaking of college hoops, it's the 40th anniversary of Midnight Madness -- which was invented about 20 minutes away from our new house, in College Park at the University of Maryland. I'd love to take the kids to see that -- it's all lights and noise and dunking -- but like every other sports event I've wanted to go to in the five weeks since we moved here (Stephen Strasburg starts, Redskins games, Capitals home opener, NBA player exhibition games), it hasn't happened yet. At some point, hopefully.

Meanwhile, like everyone else, I'm excited for the college hoops season that gets underway today -- there hasn't been star power like this in nearly 20 years, maybe longer. But let's take a cue from last year's NCAA Tournament -- if a team (or teams) look so dominant that their place in the Final Four (or championship circle) seems obvious, guess again. At least this season, there are at least a half-dozen teams that can't claim to be so much better than the others in the top tier. If I had to make a prediction today for a national champ, I'll fall back on my crutch and say UConn repeats, which I wouldn't have predicted unless Andre Drummond showed up to play this season before becoming a Top 3 NBA draft pick in the most loaded draft in a decade. (But, wow, UNC is going to be awfully good, too.)

A few other notes:

*NLCS: I kind of love Randy Wolf, who pitches like I would pitch if I had an MLB pitching career. Texas only needs to win one of two games at home to win the pennant? Take Texas.

*NLCS: Can the Cardinals win Game 5 in STL then take one of two in Milwaukee? Absolutely. But I think it's fair to say that Game 5 is must-win for them.

*CFB Weekend: Game of the Week? Hmm... not a ton of elite-vs-elite games. The big games between ranked teams -- Oklahoma State-Texas and Oregon-Arizona State -- feel like blowouts waiting to happen. I look forward to Michigan State delivering a dose of reality to Michigan (although I'm partial to Michigan being good)... Florida at Auburn? Sigh. Not quite. If I had to pick an upset special, it's the Spartans beating Michigan, but the game is in East Lansing and Michigan is overrated. Still, we'll take what we can get.

*My favorite NFL Week 6 storylines:
*Game of the Week: 4-1 49ers at 5-0 Lions
*Cam Newton Watch: Vs. the dodgy Falcons pass D
*SchadenPHreude: Eagles in DC vs. the Skins
*If the Giants got carved up at home vs. Seattle, what will Fitzpatrick and the Bills do to 'em?

*NBA Lockout: At some point, do the players get so dismayed at how badly they're being worked over by the league that they just give up? I think that's far more likely than them continuing to fight.

-- D.S.

10/13 (Very) Quickie

2011-10-13T10:26:00.002-04:00

My younger son Jonah turns 3 tomorrow. That's a little crazy for me to think through right now. Damn, it goes fast...

*Theo to Chicago: There isn't anyone (except for trolling contrarians) who doesn't think this is a coup for the Cubs. As for the Red Sox...

*Freak-out at Fenway: That Boston Globe story yesterday was deeply flawed for two reasons -- (1) Opaque use of anonymous sourcing to trash Terry Francona and the players; (2) conflating correlation with causation. The players eating fried chicken didn't cause them to miss the playoffs. If the team had won one more game over 162, the story is "Gotta love the Idiots!" Just like the story in 2004 if the team loses the ALCS is "These misfits are too unstable to win anything."

*ALCS: Jim Leyland screwed up the ending but good.

*NLCS: I'm no Tony LaRussa fan -- and not much of a Cardinals fan, period (if anything, I'm way more sympathetic to the Brewers -- but damn, this Cards team is getting easy to like. They hustle their way into the playoffs, dispatch the presumptive NL champ then ride Albert Pujols and sick relief pitching to a series lead, halfway to a pennant.

*NCAA clears Cam Newton, Auburn: As expected (but not so expected last fall).

*Tim Tebow in the next "Die Hard?" Look at the head of Fox movies, trolling all of you.

*Funny: OccupyHerbstreit, a Tumblr of a guy holding up college football-themed signs down at the "Occupy Wall Street" protests.

-- D.S.

10/12 (Theo) Quickie

2011-10-12T08:58:00.002-04:00

I've been a Theo Epstein fan since the day he got the GM job -- partly it's because we're the same age, partly it's because I like his approach, partly because I like the high-stakes role he took over. (Knowing how I feel about the Red Sox, it certainly wasn't because of an affinity I had for the team itself.) I celebrated his success (even as I cursed the Sox), and I'm Team Theo all the way.

If/when he ends up with the Cubs, I'll be thrilled. He's done all he can possibly do in Boston; the Cubs are an even bigger challenge than the Red Sox. And I actually like the Cubs -- I grew up a die-hard Cubs fan -- and it's easy to intertwine a rooting interest in the team's success with a rooting interest in Theo's success.

It's an amazing move for Chicago. Notwithstanding this season, I still think Theo is the best GM in baseball -- perhaps matched only by two of the other young guys, Andrew Friedman in Tampa and Jon Daniels in Texas. The Red Sox will be fine -- I doubt they will change much systemically or financially. I suspect most Boston fans are bummed to lose Theo. But I'm happy for him. The Cubs are the next ultimate challenge.

ALCS: Did anyone expect the Tigers to roll over in their first home game? Like all playoff series, it doesn't really start until the home team loses a game.

NLCS: Gallardo vs. Carpenter tonight should be outstanding.

It's sizing up as a quiet day. This Boston Globe story on how/why the Red Sox collapsed is sensationalized to the Nth and seems fairly confused between the concepts of "causation" and "correlation," but it's a fun read if you enjoy schadenfreude.

Give Quickish a look -- lots of great stuff there.

-- D.S.

10/11 (Lions) Quickie

2011-10-11T08:54:00.002-04:00

*What a scene last night in Detroit at Ford Field -- that's about as raucous as any NFL home field I've heard this year. Oh, and the Lions are 5-0 for the first time in a half-century.

*Two words: Albert. Pujols. (Can you believe there was any questioning of Pujols' abilities just a few months ago?)

*Oh, wait: Nelson. Cruz. The first-ever walk-off grand slam in an MLB playoff game. (FWIW, I was at the Robin Ventura "walk-off grand-single" game at Shea.)

*NBA cancels first two weeks: Following the NBA labor situation is wearying. There's a compelling case to be made that the players shouldn't give up so much, but it's hard to break through the league's choke-hold on the mainstream NBA media, which is entirely out of its depth when it comes to labor reporting.

The fact is: NBA reporters, bloggers and fans -- even the most stridently pro-player -- would trade a severe player screwing in exchange for the season starting on time (or, at this point, ASAP). There can be a sympathy for the players' situation, but it is completely subordinate to the interest from these key folks in the process (the media) in having the season begin.

*TCU is in the Big 12: Go back a year ago, when Texas would NEVER have let TCU into the Big 12 -- mostly because TCU had become better than Texas. It's going to be amazing when TCU upends Oklahoma (and Texas, obviously) to become a perennial Big 12 contender/champ.

*Tim Tebow to be named Broncos starting QB today? Why not?

-- D.S.

10/10 (NFL Week 5) Quickie

2011-10-10T10:34:00.002-04:00

*I'm tempted to simply point to the latest Tebow hysteria -- surely only going to grow with a bye week between now and the Broncos game at Miami (on, hilariously, "Gator Day.")

I think all Tebow fans ever wanted -- all NFL fans ever wanted, really -- was for the Broncos to stop pretending that they were a playoff team and give Tebow a chance to start, if only to see how he does. Not just one game, but for a good 10-12 weeks. I think now we'll get it. If you hate Tebow hysteria, it's not going to be a good fall for you. But if you were watching the ending last night of an otherwise lame Broncos-Chargers game, you realize that for all the gripes against him, he DOES make things more interesting. (By the way, there was a clear pass interference call on the crazy-legs Hail Mary at the end of the game; can you imagine if they called it and Tebow had run the game-winning TD in from the 1 with no time left on the clock?)

I've been saying this since before the season started -- John Fox could have started Tebow all 16 games. If he went 0-16, the Broncos get to say they gave Tebow a chance and secure Andrew Luck (while giving Tebow the reps he would need to hook on elsewhere). If Tebow actually led Denver to a couple of wins, then they know he is a QB they can build around. I've come to realize the John Fox is a terrible coach -- one of the worst fits possible to be involved in the Tebow phenomenon.

*But there's a lot more from yesterday: The Eagles are a wreck... the Jets are neutered... the 49ers are way out of "Suck for Luck" contention (because they're actually good)... the Giants lost a game they shouldn't have (surprise)... and the Vikings actually won a game (go figure: they gave the ball to Adrian Peterson and good things happened)... Appreciate Aaron Rodgers, a QB playing as well as any I've ever seen.

*The Brewers are so easy to like.

*Story of the Day: The Lions on Monday Night Football tonight in the most must-see MNF game in recent memory.

*RIP Al Davis, cont'd: Some amazing analysis of the man's life at Quickish.

This Week's BlogPoll Top 25 Ballot: Status Quo

2011-10-09T14:06:00.003-04:00

Nothing happened this weekend to make me dislodge LSU and Alabama from the Top 2. I cannot fathom any voter putting Oklahoma ahead of either of them; if/when they play head-to-head, Oklahoma will get throttled (as they do every time they play an SEC team). Here's the ballot:

DanShanoff.com Ballot - Week 7

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
3	Wisconsin Badgers	--
4	Oklahoma Sooners	--
5	Boise St. Broncos	--
6	Stanford Cardinal	--
7	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	--
8	Oregon Ducks	--
9	Clemson Tigers	--
10	Arkansas Razorbacks	3
11	Texas A&M Aggies	3
12	South Carolina Gamecocks	-1
13	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	-1
14	Houston Cougars	1
15	Auburn Tigers	-5
16	West Virginia Mountaineers	1
17	Arizona St. Sun Devils	8
18	Michigan Wolverines	3
19	Nebraska Cornhuskers	1
20	Virginia Tech Hokies	4
21	Kansas St. Wildcats	1
22	Baylor Bears	1
23	Texas Longhorns	-7
24	Florida Gators	-5
25	Illinois Fighting Illini	--
Dropouts: Florida St. Seminoles

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

10/09 (Very) Quickie

2011-10-09T08:38:00.003-04:00

A few stray thoughts while waiting for NFL Week 5...

*RIP Al Davis. It's been fun to see his life and career put into perspective, rather than the late-in-life caricatures that have become the norm over the past 10 years.

*CFB Saturday: Impressive enough win for Oklahoma, but I think we'll recognize Texas just isn't that good. It's an annual tradition that the Sooners look really good in mid-October and people start talking nonsense about OU's worthiness as the best team in college football -- does anyone actually think Oklahoma wouldn't get throttled by Alabama (or LSU)? (BTW: At what point does Oklahoma's win over Florida State get properly devalued?)

*More: As a Florida fan, the past two weeks have been ugly, but it's pretty easy to get over them when you realize it's the two best teams in the country and that ANY team -- including Oklahoma -- would get throttled by Alabama and LSU in back-to-back weeks...

(Yes: That penalty on the LSU punter was absurd.)

*More more: Most impressive win of the weekend? Arkansas crushing Auburn... Oklahoma State fans can talk as soon as they beat Oklahoma... As far as CFB schadenfreude goes, little tops an Ohio State collapse (even if they aren't very good to begin with)... Looking ahead to next week, the most interesting game is -- ehh -- Florida at Auburn? Ugh. Weak week.

*Rangers win ALCS Game 1: The rain was interminable. The Rangers' bullpen was not.

*NLCS Game 1 today: Brewers in 7.

-- D.S.

10/07 (Yankees Lose) Quickie

2011-10-07T09:01:00.003-04:00

Count me among those who think it's a good day for baseball -- and for almost all sports fans -- when the Yankees are bounced from the playoffs.

But there is one thing that I will always respect about the Yankees (and their fans), and it is George Steinbrenner's greatest legacy:

Anything less than a championship is a failure.

97 wins? Beating out the Red Sox for an AL East title? Even an AL pennant? Meaningless. The only thing that matters is a World Series ring.

I love that about the Yankees. It is one of the things that lured me into die-hard fandom of Florida football. Championship or bust.

One of the most important lessons of Moneyball is that any data-driven analysis bakes in that small sample sizes are dangerous. A five-game playoff series is largely a crapshoot, especially if the teams are almost entirely evenly matched.

A one-game playoff series -- like we had last night -- is an even bigger crapshoot. Guys like Kelly have a career-best night; guys like A-Rod have a terrible one.

The result is far more indelible: The Yankees' season is over, and it is a failure. God bless 'em for that -- and god bless the rest of us for reveling in it.

*****

*Last night was a tasty appetizer, but what a main course today: Two win-or-go-home Game 5s to decide the National League finalists. Must-must-see.

*When the Brewers-D'backs game heads into the evening -- the start of Yom Kippur, the holiest night of the Jewish year -- should Ryan Braun, who has always embraced his status as the greatest active Jewish sports star, sit out?

When it comes to religious observance, I have always deferred to personal preference, so the answer is: He should do whatever he feels is right. If that means playing, I don't think anyone should begrudge him. He might feel a twinge of guilt; that's not a terrible outcome. His heart has to be in two places at once; that's never easy.

*CFB Weekend Preview: LSU might have a bit of trouble scoring on Florida, but they are going to blank the Gators' offense. Ultimately, all those three-and-outs by the Gators' offense are going to leave the defense weary enough that LSU just punishes them into a decisive win... Oklahoma is going to throttle Texas... Most intriguing game of the week: Auburn at Arkansas (Pick: Auburn)... Upset Special: Northwestern over Michigan.

*My Favorite NFL Week 5 Storylines:
-Game of the Week: Jets at Pats (Pats will cruise)
-NFC playoffs rematch GB @ ATL: Expect more of the same.
-No-longer-Dream-Team: Must-win for the Eagles in Buffalo.
-Cam Newton Watch: At home vs. Saints
-Suck for Luck: Can Colts, Vikings afford to win at home?

The real game of the week is the Lions hosting Monday Night Football. We'll get to that next week.

Enjoy the weekend everyone. Updates here both mornings, plus great recommendations and real-time analysis all weekend long at Quickish. Give it a try! (And tell friends!)

-- D.S.

10/06 (RIP Steve Jobs) Quickie

2011-10-06T08:52:00.002-04:00

Steve Jobs became the most iconic business leader of the last half-century, and he did it through an exacting commitment to design, user-experience, simplicity and self-belief.

The results were technologically, culturally and personally transformative: Apple. The Mac. Pixar. The iPod. The iPad. iTunes. And, what I would argue was his greatest achievement, the iPhone.

Jobs will be missed, but -- hopefully -- his influence lives on, both inside of Apple and to the delight and inspiration of everyone who uses the products he led to creation.

-- D.S.

10/03 (Wedding) Quickie

2011-10-03T09:44:00.003-04:00

First before anything: Happy anniversary to Mrs. Quickie -- best 7 years of my life.

NFL at the quarter-turn: The Lions (sorry: the 4-0 Lions) are THE story. Period. And, in some amazing timing, they play on Monday Night Football next week.

The Quarter MVP is Aaron Rodgers, who had about as good of a game as a QB can have -- or has ever had -- yesterday in yet another Packers win.

The Quarter Rookie of the Year is Cam Newton. And not even his biggest fans would have predicted how well he would start his career. It's been better than that.

The Quarter Coach of the Year would be Jim Schwartz, but everyone had Detroit figured for SOME kind of breakthrough. But what about Mike Munchak in Tennessee?

Week 4 Notes: Bengals over Bills was a classic "Everything you thought you understood about the NFL this season is wrong" moment... The Eagles are a mess (and, as usual, it's so much more interesting than if they were dominating)... So which of the 0-4 teams are ready to really start tanking for Andrew Luck? Because they could all use him. (I feel like the Dolphins are readiest.)... I can't get too worked up about Victor Cruz; it FELT like a fumble, but reading through the rules, it wasn't... Worth repeating: The Lions came back from being 20+ points down to win for the second straight weekend. It's a wild ride.

MLB Playoffs: Verlander vs. Sabathia tonight in what should be the pivotal game in this ALDS series? Yes, please.... Even if the Cards end up being bounced by the Phillies, they'll always have that amazing comeback on previously uncomebackable Cliff Lee... While you were watching the other games, the Brewers have been dominating... Rays-Rangers has become a must-see toss-up.

CFB: Some rare clarity in college football this season -- the winner of LSU-Alabama (and it will be Alabama, decisively) will crush whoever the rest of the country wants to run through the messy BCS process. It could be Wisconsin or Oklahoma or Stanford or Boise State. The Alabama team I saw up close on Saturday night was not just talented, but vicious. Scott Van Pelt called it "relentless" and "ruthless" -- that was totally right. No one is stopping them.

Keep an eye on Quickish today -- lots of good stuff.

-- D.S.

This WEek's BlogPoll Top 25 Ballot: LSU, Bama

2011-10-02T12:52:00.002-04:00

The top 2 teams in the country are LSU and Alabama -- after watching Bama in person last night, I cannot fathom that any right-minded voter thinks that if they played head-to-head, Alabama wouldn't throttle Oklahoma or Wisconsin or anyone else outside of LSU, who Alabama will probably throttle anyway, en route to a national title.

The reality is that the national championship game for college football this season is Nov. 5, when LSU plays at Alabama. LSU gets their chance; everyone else is battling for the right to get crushed by Bama in the national title game. (Then again, we said the same thing this time last year, right up until Auburn derailed Bama. I just feel like Alabama is on a mission this year.)

DanShanoff.com Ballot - Week 6

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
3	Wisconsin Badgers	2
4	Oklahoma Sooners	-1
5	Boise St. Broncos	-1
6	Stanford Cardinal	--
7	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	--
8	Oregon Ducks	5
9	Clemson Tigers	7
10	Auburn Tigers	--
11	South Carolina Gamecocks	-3
12	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	5
13	Arkansas Razorbacks	5
14	Texas A&M Aggies	5
15	Houston Cougars	--
16	Texas Longhorns	6
17	West Virginia Mountaineers	4
18	Florida St. Seminoles	5
19	Florida Gators	-5
20	Nebraska Cornhuskers	-9
21	Michigan Wolverines	4
22	Kansas St. Wildcats	--
23	Baylor Bears	-13
24	Virginia Tech Hokies	-12
25	Arizona St. Sun Devils	-1
Dropouts: South Florida Bulls, TCU Horned Frogs

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

10/01 (Gainesville) Quickie

2011-10-01T09:08:00.002-04:00

Gainesville, Fla. -- Not (necessarily) because I am actually in Gainesville and going to the game tonight at The Swamp, I have (nearly) convinced myself that the Gators can make this a game.

I'm not saying I think Florida will win -- the memory of last year's beat-down is still too fresh. But this year's team is very different from last year's.

But, and this is scary, I think if everything (everything) breaks right -- a few unlikely turnovers, a tiny crack in the line for Rainey and Demps to scamper through, John Brantley not peeing his pants under pressure -- the Gators can be in the game in the 4th quarter, with the chance to win.

I am far more confident about Wisconsin against fellow Top 10 team Nebraska in Madison, with the Huskers making their real Big Ten debut. I think the Badgers are going to roll -- by 3 TDs or more. Wisconsin -- my preseason pick to run the table and make the national-title game -- is much better than people know from the non-conference blow-out scores. And playing at home... at night... on a national-TV "GameDay" game? It's time for Russell Wilson to go national.

Wish I was that bullish on the Gators. But I'm bullish enough -- which is enough to give me anxious butterflies in my stomach throughout the day until the 8 p.m. kickoff... and enough to leave me on the wrong side of disappointed if the expected happens and the Tide rolls.

-- D.S.