The PGA's other Championship and Player of the Year

At the end of the week, the world's top golfers will showcase their talents in the TOUR Championship at East Lake GC in Atlanta, GA.  The event basically marks the end of the season and the culmination of the FedEx Cup playoffs.  The TOUR Championship may also decide who will win player of the year.  

Here are the golfers most likely to win player of the year, and my prediction:

1. Tiger Woods
Official World Golf Ranking: 1
FedEx Cup Points Ranking: 1
Earnings: $8.2 million
Wins: 5
Majors: 0 (Master's: T4, US Open: T32, Open Champ: T6, PGA Champ: T40)

2. Adam Scott
Official World Golf Ranking: 2
FedEx Cup Points Ranking: 3
Earnings: $4.7 million
Wins: 2
Majors: 1 (Master's: Won, US Open: T45, Open Champ: T3, PGA Champ: T5)

3. Phil Mickelson
Official World Golf Ranking: 3
FedEx Cup Points Ranking: 8
Earnings: $5.3 million
Wins: 2
Majors: 1 (Master's: T54, US Open: T2, Open Champ: Won, PGA Champ: T72)

Analysis
On paper, Tiger Woods should win player of the year, as he won the most tournaments, earned the most money, and maintained #1 rankings.  Should he win the TOUR Championship, I believe he will win player of the year.

However, despite his 5 wins, none of them were majors.  Assuming none of these three win the TOUR Championship, I believe Adam Scott SHOULD be player of the year.  Scott was the most consistent in major tournaments and finally broke through at the Master's.  It will also be interesting to see how much the voters value Mickelson's comeback, which was spectacular, at the Open Championship. I just don't think Mickelson played consistently enough across the majors to win player of the year. 

Brain Droppings...Thoughts on the Game of the Century

It proved to be a great week of college football again but this shouldn't surprise us. Every week something happens that we didn't see coming. It will happen again this week even though the slate of games appears to be dull. On to my random thoughts...

1. The Seinfeld Finale - We've been hearing about the latest "Game of the Century" for almost a year now and I have to admit it was good television but it wasn't really that close of a game. After falling behind quickly again, Bama's offense proved that A&M have no defense. If it weren't for a T.J. Yeldon fumble on the one yard line, this was going to be a laugher at the end. A lot of the pundits seem to think this was another bench mark performance for Johnny Manziel and I won't deny that he is fun to watch, but it was his two turnovers that helped the Tide to win. And then there was that scramble and heave that Uncle Verne and Gary Danielson marveled over...



Am I the only one that was impressed by the scramble and then thought he made an awful decision to heave the ball into traffic? How was this ball not intercepted? Verne and Gary talked about it being his Heisman moment for 2013 but it was so lucky. Don't be fooled. If you thought the hype was over after the game ended, then you're going to be disappointed. You'll be hearing about Johnny Football all year.

2. WTF was that? - Did anyone stay up on the East Coast to watch the end of the Wisconsin/Arizona State game? If you haven't seen or heard, it was one of the more bizarre endings of a college football game, I've ever seen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D-ELRub8n7s

Upon, first glance I thought it was a fumble. But, after further review it appeared his knew was down. Wisconsin should have gotten the opportunity to spike the ball. However, I'll say this. Just kick the field goal, Coach. Sure the referees should have made the right call, but your field goal kicker made all four of attempts the week before. He must be good enough to get the job done. Why risk it?

3) Players and Coaches Fight Back - Every day of the year, players and coaches have to listen to overzealous fans about how crappy they are. Sure, Aaron Murray is going to leave UGA as one of the most decorated QBs to ever play, but I bet I could find someone in the next hour that thinks its time to let Hutson Mason get a chance. I know that's a UGA example but every fan base has this crazed, lunatic fringe. Well, a couple of years ago, Bo Pelini told us what he really thought of the fans (Warning: Explicit Lyrics)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qycehfCvBTc

That was after a win over Ohio State. Also, after a win over Vandy, some of the Gamecocks weren't happy with their fans which is really news because Carolina fans are so obnoxious, I refuse to go back

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/sbnation/SBNation_20130916_Steve_Spurrier__Connor_Shaw_call_out_South_Carolina_fans_for_leaving.html

4) P-A-C - I hear that Oregon students started the fame S-E-C chant towards the end of their blowout of the Tennessee Volunteers. It then morphed into a "We Want Bama" chant...

http://collegespun.com/pac-12/oregon-pac-12/video-oregon-fans-chant-s-e-c-and-we-want-bama-as-ducks-blow-out-tennessee

They must've known that the Tide's defense was struggling against A&M. It's early in the year but here's my thoughts on the SEC. As a whole, it might be better than it was last year. I think Kentucky and Missouri are better teams so the conference is deeper, but I'm not sure about it's position at the top. Sure, I think Bama, Georgia, A&M, and LSU are very good teams with a chance to win it all but so far this year, but UGA and A&M already have a loss, LSU still has a tough schedule, and the Tide aren't the team they were last year. A long way to go, but this may be the year that the streak ends.

5) This leads me to a new feature for Brain Droppings and Ground.Rule.Huddle...the weekly SEC power rankings. These are based solely on my opinion based on what I can gather so far. Truthfully, I have yet to see every team play, so there is a little guesswork on my behalf but here goes...

14) Kentucky - Still a long way to go, but even lowly UK appears to be heading in the right direction.

13) Missouri - Tough to decide when you have yet to play anyone of note but Toledo isn't horrible.

12) Mississippi State - Hung in there with an improving Auburn team but Mullen is probably feeling it.

11) Tennessee - The old Tennessee might not have beaten Oregon but could've hung around.

10) Arkansas - They keep beating bad teams, but at least they're beating someone. 

9) Auburn - Beating State is one thing, beating LSU this week is another.

8) Vanderbilt - Flat out stunk in the 1st half against Carolina. Maybe another 2nd half bounce back?

7) Florida - Defense is good but Driskell is not.

6) Ole Miss - Defense not as good as Florida, but offense is vastly superior. Very young too.

5) South Carolina - Where's the D?

4) Texas A&M - See above statement regarding Carolina. Manziel keeps them ahead for now.

3) LSU - I hear Mettenberger is getting better. We'll see when the schedule toughens.

2) UGA - Tough to discredit a loss against #3 Clemson in Death Valley but defense must improve.

1) Bama - Maybe they were exposed a little on defense last week but "To be the best, you have to beat the best! Whoooooooooooo!"

Week 4 SEC Power Rankings

For marketing and fan purposes, Jeremy and I completely understand the need for preseason and early polls.  However, we believe that after 3 weeks, one can start to get a much more accurate sense of a team's abilities.

Every Monday and Tuesday, we will each post our SEC Power Rankings from today until the end of the season.  Jeremy's Power Rankings will come in his weekly Brain Droppings.

Brian's SEC Power Rankings, with One Word Descriptors

1. Alabama...ELITE
T2. Georgia...POTENTIAL
T2. LSU...CONSISTENT
4. South Carolina...SOLID
5. Texas A&M...DANGEROUS

6. Florida...TURNOVERS
7. Ole Miss...UPRISING

8. Auburn...IMPROVEMENT
9. Vanderbilt...REALITY
10. Arkansas...QUESTIONS

11. Mississippi State...STALE
12. Missouri...MAYBE
13. Tennessee...FUTURE
14. Kentucky...BLAH

JD's Deuce Points (My name is who, my name is what? Ticka, Ticka...)

1. An Interesting Saturday

"The Talk, pt 3"

There were some household chores around the house yesterday, but with Alabama at Texas A&M coming on mid-afternoon, I didn't feel like doing them. I told my wife it was the game of the century, part 2, and she totally understood. I watched the game and felt elated with the amount of entertainment. And, then, the stuff hit the fan. DirecTV went out for a little bit, due to the electricity Johnny Football put on the field. Thank goodness for my neighbor.

2. Random Thoughts 

I've followed UCLA for a while now and can't figure them or Jim Mora, Jr. out.  Will the real UCLA Bruins please stand up? After the nice win at Nebraska, when interviewed about scoring 35 unanswered, Coach Jim Mora, Jr., replied, "My name is who? my name is what? My name is...Ticka Ticka Jim Shady."

Week 3 Scorecast

Picks	Ole Miss @ Tex (-3.5)	Miss St @ AU (-6)	UCLA @ Neb (-4.5)	Bama (-8) @ TXAM
Jeremy (7-1)
Brian (5-3)
JD (4-4)
Keppel the Bookie (5-3)
Guest Picks
Lord McFather (5-3)
The Bear (6-2)

Game of the Week: (1) Alabama at (6) Texas A&M

Taking a Closer Look at MLB

Yes,  since football has started, Major League Baseball, often labeled "America's Pastime," has taken a back seat.  In light of the upcoming MLB postseason, I propose several reasons for MLB's decreasing popularity in American sports:

1. 162 games. Most of you have heard this one before. Quite simply, the season is too long.  Playoffs included, MLB generates $7 billion in total revenues, with 162 games.  That is certainly a lot of money, but compare that figure to the $11 billion generated by the NFL, with only 16 season games.  In short, the NFL is kicking MLB's ass.  

Here is what I propose: Reduce the season to finish as College Football and the NFL are starting.

2. The new wild card rules are stupid. For the 2012 season, MLB implemented the change to include 2 wild card teams in the playoffs, as opposed to 1.  For extra revenues, I understand this move.  But, if one wild card team is significantly better over the duration of 162 games, then why decide who proceeds in the playoffs with 1 game? Consider last year as an example.  The #1 Wild Card Braves (94-68) were 6 games ahead of the #2 Wild Card Cardinals (88-74).  The team with the better record (Braves) lost in the single-elimination playoff game.  Not to disrespect the Cardinals, but for those of you who know baseball, if a pitcher has a dominant performance in 1 game, it doesn't matter how good the other team is, the dominant pitcher will likely win.  In other words, the worst team in the NL last year, the Chicago Cubs (.377), could have won a single elimination game against the Braves.

Here is what I propose: 162 games represents a pretty large sample.  If a team is 6 wins better than another, they are likely a better team.  Since adding a 5 game playoff for Wild Card teams would further drag out an already long season, if a Wild Card Team #1 is 4 games better than Wild Card Team #2, then the single elimination game is not played.  If Wild Card Team #1 is 3 games or less better than Wild Card Team #2, then include the single elimination game.  For, at the end of last year, Baltimore and Texas had identical records for the AL Wild Card spots.  I am fully in favor of them playing a single game elimination. 

3. Superstar Issues. Compared the NFL (Manning, Brady, Rodgers, and several other emerging stars) and the NBA (James, Bryant, Wade, etc), MLB has experienced superstar issues. One of three things has seemed to happen to superstars: a) they get huge contracts and drop-off in performance (Pujols), they take illegal performance enhancing drugs (Rodriguez and many others), or they play in more irrelevant markets (Cabrera).  It is hard to be fanatical about a league in which there aren't representative faces of the league.

Here is what I propose: Stop the outrageous contracts. 

4. Majestic. Ok, this is more of a humorous reason, but who sponsors MLB's jerseys? Majestic.  That's right, who? People are brand loyal, and I don't know anyone loyal to Majestic.  Lots of people like Nike (NFL) and Adidas (NBA). 

Here is what I propose: Consider Under Armour. 

Brain Droppings....Potential Penniless Lane (not really, just out of a job Lane I suppose)

So it was a busy weekend of football and it was a busy Monday in the real world. Sorry, I'm a day late with this...

1) Lane Kiffin is in T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Look, we all need to be honest that fans on the west coast could really care less about college football compared to fans in the southeast. The problem that Monte's son has is that he has gotten USC fans to raise hell about USC football for all the wrong reasons. Not scoring an offensive touchdown against Washington State has the folks in LaLa noticing and that's not really a good thing.

2) Say what? - Speaking of coaches on the hot seat, none may be hotter than that of Texas coach, Mack Browns. After a truly dismal performance in Provo against a BYU team that had lost to Virginia the previous weekend, the Longhorns couldn't grab a hold of anyone's magic underwear to make a tackle. The Cougars amassed over 500 yards rushing and left defensive coordinator, Manny Diaz wishing he could trade places with the real Manny Diaz, here in Athens (Google him, if you don't know).

3) My Fantasy -team stunk this week. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

4) Speaking of Which - I'm a much bigger college fan than I am a pro fan, but there were some legitimate good games over the weekend. The Pats were pushed by the lowly Bills, the Jets staged a miracle aided by a boneheaded penalty that might not should have been called, and the Falcons came up just short of beating the Saints in Sean Payton's return. That's a pretty solid slate of games that doesn't include Peyton Manning's 7 TDs and the Eagle's breakneck offensive speed. If every NFL weekend can be like this, then it will still hold second place in my heart to the passion and pageantry of college ball.

5) If you were like me and totally engrossed in football all weekend, then you might have missed this monster home run by The White Bear, Evan Gattis. Sure, he has cooled off towards the end of the summer, but this one was measured as the longest home run of the year, by anyone. Check it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKamM3XN85g

6) You Thought I Forgot - How good did the UGA offense look over the weekend? The offensive line was vastly improved and the skill players didn't miss a beat. Had it not been for another poor attempt at a catch by the punter, than the game may not have been as close as it was. I will say this though. the defense has to improve and it should, but the Dawgs won't be able to win out unless it can stop somebody sometime. Congrats to Aaron Murray, as well. People have ripped this kid, egged his house, and proposed that Zach Mettenberger would be the starter if he were still here, despite the fact that Murray will finish his career (barring injury) as the best statistical QB in SEC history. Tough crowd. By the way, had Gurley been able to finish running for a TD in the play where his helmet got ripped off, we'd be talking about his invite to New York for the Heisman ceremony. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaDQYUzRBFA

A surprisingly good slate of games this weekend will be overshadowed by one huge one. Our picks will be coming later in the week.