Loughdmouth

            Let's skip the "get off the replacement refs' ass, they've had all of two days on the job" sermon and go straight to the field.

  

 

CALL THE BOOKIE (REVIEW)

            Upon further review, the second week of pickin' was better than the first. Sometimes it just didn't feel that way.

            Take Ohio State to cover 15.5 over Cal:  The Bears came to play and could have won, but lost by seven. Dangit.

            Take Va. Tech giving 10.5 to Pitt: Yeah, Pitt will fit in the schizo ACC, up and hammering the Hokies, who already fit in the schizo ACC. Pitt 35-17. Yikes.

            Take Alabama giving Arkansas 20: Whew. Finally an easy one that was an easy one to the tune of 52-0.

            Take Penn State giving 7 to Navy:  Thought this would be a walk, and it was, the Nittany Lions rolling 34-7.

            Take Rice and the 22 vs. Louisiana Tech: Hoooly crap, a big gamble pick paid off.

            Tech 56, Rice 37. The Owls covered, God bless 'em. Am guessing they covered the over, too.

            Don't touch: Don't touch: La.-Monroe plus 16.5 at Auburn (Auburn in OT, got it right); Virginia plus 10.5 at Georgia Tech (Tech by 36, but what happens vs. Miami?) North Carolina plus 3 at Louisville (the Ville wins by five); UGA minus 42 vs. Florida Atlantic (the Dogs covered until an INT return for  TD with 10 minutes left. Whew).

            And yup, missed Tennessee over Florida, but the record for the week was 3-2, whoopdedoooo, for two-week total of 4-6.

 

CALL THE BOOKIE

            Bowling Green plus 22 at Va. Tech: No, the Hokies apparently aren't all that good, and Bowling Green isn't all that bad.

            But VT was pretty much humiliated by losing to Pitt. Somebody must pay.

            Take VT and the 22.

            UTEP plus 16 at Wisconsin: No Badger assistants have been fired in a week. That's nice.

            UTEP played Oklahoma pretty good, but about as well as it played Ole Miss. Wisconsin hasn't played worth a flip all season, and is in the bottom 20 in rushing.

            Somebody must pay.

            Take Wisconsin and the 16.

            We interrupt this to note the Duke-Memphis game, which could draw less than the hoops game if they moved the hoops game to a football facility. And Duke - DUKE - is a 24-point favorite. How sad has Memphis become. Where are you, Albert Means? Or any Means?

            Eastern Michigan plus 28.5 at Michigan State: The Spartans should have a first-quarter hangover after staggering to the 20-3 loss to Notre Dame.   

            EMU is the right medicine once MSU shakes off the funk of last week. And MSU the past few years has done fairly well after such a loss.

            Take Michigan State and the 28.5.

            We interrupt this guessing to point out that Northern Illinois, of the MAC, is a 10-point favorite over Kansas. Wow.

            Missouri plus 9 at South Carolina: It's not a night game in the SEC, but it's the CBS game, and it's Missouri's first road SEC game.

            USCE is due for the run game to get moving, and goodness, the Gamecocks have rolled regardless the QB. And James Franklin isn't 100 percent against a quality defense.

            Take USCE and the 9.

            LSU minus 19.5 at Auburn: There's a 21-point diff in the Sagarin Ratings.

            Too bad for Auburn this is a prime-time ESPN game. Too bad for ESPN, too.

            Take LSU and the 19.5

            Don't touch: Florida -23.5 vs. Ky (can UF follow up? is UK pissed?); Arkansas -2 vs. Rutgers (it's simple: who the hell knows what the Hogs will do from here on out on a weekly basis?); Clemson plus 14 at FSU (FSU ain't played nobody yet, how good are they?); UGA minus 16 vs. Vandy (gut feeling is UGA pulls away and covers, but Vandy is always a pain).

            Bonus: Cal plus 15 at Southern California: The Trojans are reeling, Lane Kiffin is catching hell and Matt Barkley has dropped on the Heisman lists.

            Uh oh.

            And Cal is down from last week's close call, so the Trojans will flex some muscle on the Pac-12 network.

 

LOUGHDMOUTHINGS

 

            It was not a fall baseball game when Boise State beat BYU 7-6.

            What it was was football. And fairly stunning.

            Those are two teams good for about 20 points during warmups. ...

            Ouch.

            In the "Reminder that maybe football isn't always the right move Bowl" matchup, an announced crowd of 11,496 watched.

            Assorted message board observations indicated a gathering of maybe 5,000. In a 28,000-seat listed capacity.

            It's going to be ugly in Panthertown until further notice, and that'll be awhile. ...

            Must give a high-five to Melky Cabrera for pulling out of the NL batting title race.

            But I thought you had to have a minimum number of at-bats for such honors. Well, you do, 3.1 plate appearances (not at-bats) on average per team's games, which is 502 for 162 games.

            Cabrera has 459 at-bats and 501 plate appearances (ABs, BBs, HBPs and SFs), and played in 113 games.

            But then there's this rule/amendment/union ass-cover:

            "Notwithstanding the foregoing requirement of minimum appearances at the plate, any player with fewer than the required number of plate appearances whose average would be the highest, if he were charged with the required number of plate appearances shall be awarded the batting, slugging or on-base percentage championship, as the case may be."

            What the hell's that mean?

            What in theee hell does that mean? And thus, why have the minimum in the first place?

            Apparently, they can pro-rate the at-bats total

            Why?

            I do not know.

            So not only is the ruuuule confusing - admittedly, I thought it was 502 at-bats, but I'd never paid much attention - but you can break ruuuuules and still win a title.

            Is MLB based in DC? Sure seems like it in this case. At least in this case, we got the proper result. ...

            For those who's school has a new or soon-to-be-new football program and point to Louisiana-Monroe, note this:

            The school was named Northeast Monroe when it followed neighbor Louisiana Tech and went I-A.

            That was in 1994. The Indians-turned-Warhawks have had two non-losing seasons since then, and on average give up 45 or more at least one game a year.

            When it's Central Florida or Tulane doing that, it's a sign.

            ULM did set a stadium record crowd of 31,000-plus for Baylor on Friday night, another quality loss. But will the early success be proven a fluke or a step forward? And will the crowds soon return to filling half of the stadium? ...

            Cannot watch Fox's pregame and that silliness with Tommy Bowden and, uh, who? James Bates? The Jay Crawford wannabe?

            Brutal. Decaf and some, you know, adult verbiage, huh? It's like the early, painful days of First Cold Take Pizza: like a high school drama club gone awry. Where's the damn instructor? ..

            GPS location report: Jill Arrington is joining radio screamer Petros Gimmeagyro, er, Papadakis making video pix on Foxsportssouth.com.

            *Sigh* and *click*. ...

            Yeah, West Virginia needs to go back to unis that don't look like Army in the 1940s. ...

            The requisite 'ouch' from Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel:

            "Geez, Peyton Manning played so poorly against Atlanta on Monday Night Football, I thought Danny Wuerffel was quarterbacking the Falcons."