SimonOnSports

Here's a simple chart surrounding the ascensions up the AP poll for Cincy who started unranked, Boise St. who started #14 and TCU who started at #17. They now are ranked 4, 5 and 6 respectively.

Here's a quick look at the Preseason AP poll compared to the current AP poll. Movement is tracked with arrows. Those in the preseason poll no longer ranked are X'd and those in the rankings who were not preseason ranked are O'd. What you notice is the big Big East hating that went on in the preseason poll. Cincy and Pitt have now crept into the Top 8. Before the season started nobody respected a single Big East team. I guess 2 1/2 months of football and just one loss between the two account for some respect. Other little footnotes are the massive climb TCU has made. The fact that Bama justifiably jumped Texas and the precipitous fall by Oklahoma (yay Bradford) and USC (ugh defense).

I'm not usually turning this page into a gossip column parading about peoples personal lives and their affairs and divorces, but it is Steve Phillips. So... which Steve Phillips decision was worse his affair with Brooke Hundley or Signing Mo Vaughn? Signing Mo Vaughn - Mo Vaughn was fat old and coming off a season in which he didn't play single game due to injuries as a result of being fat and old. So Steve Phillips naturally decided to trade Kevin Appier for him and inherit a contract more bloated than Mo himself. The end results 1. The Mets sucked. 2. The Mets lost a lot, a lot, a lot of money. 3. Steve Phillips was fired and never to be hired again as an MLB GM. Affair with Hundley - The affair with Hundley is a bad decision for a multitude of reasons. First off he's old, she's not. Second off, she's not exactly Brooklyn Decker . Finally, she was quite obviously psychotic . The end results 1) Mr. Phillips is a married man and this affair has obviously obliter...

Three weeks gone by in the NFL season and it appears as if Michael Crabtree is getting further and further away from signing an NFL contract. The deadline to get a deal done is November 17th but currently his agent and Niner representatives have not spoken in a week and its apparent that these execs are not very happy with him. In addition the Niners are just one Brett Favre lucky pass away from being 3-0 so it can be said that they currently are not desperate for his services. So who should bend first? Who should give into the demands of the other? Crabtree - You supposedly have claims that teams will pay you double what the Niners have offered, how do you know those are accurate? These teams are not supposed to be talking to your agent, and they can't actually guarantee you that you'll still be around for them to draft. In addition, shouldn't you want to be a playing NFL player? Do you like not playing and everyone calling you greedy? Niners - This isn't the ML...

If I have a single college put peave about college football its my disdain for preseason polls. It's not really the concept of a preseason poll, it's what results during the college season based on the preseason poll. The preseason poll is the baseline for how moronic pollsters conduct their voting on a week to week basis. A preseason poll is essentially each and every pollsters guess/prediction on who is the best team in the country. Sure we have some semblance of an idea. We know Tebow, McCoy and Bradford are back so we know the three times who vied for the National Championship will be good. We know USC is always good and Ohio State is always good. We know Duke will be bad. But do we really have any idea who the best team is going to be? No, not really. Predictions are what they are, and that is usually wrong . If we could just understand the preseason poll and take it for what its worth, essentially nothing, than it'd be fine. But when a team comes out of nowhe...

I am in the Blogpoll , yay. If you don't know what the blogpoll is, it is essentially the biggest collection of jackass bloggers voting on college football and its hosted on CBS Sportsline . I convinced Brian, the organizer of the poll to let me in on the history of my past polls . I do have a three year history. So I'm in. Anyway, I'm representing UConn, because I'm from Connecticut. So I shall be enlightening you with a UConn football post weekly during the season. It'll be brief, but I feel obliged to do it.

It's time to determine which league is the biggest disgrace in this whole St. Patty's Day Merchandise debacle. Each league has put up a strong case but only one can be the absolute worst. I wrote a little sum up for each league but if you need the hideous reminder of what all of their crap looks like clip on each of the links. 1. NBA - The NBA just might be the worst thanks to their complete lack of effort. The vast majority of the merchandise they are trying to pawn off looks exactly like the lakers sweatshirt, some plain green clothing item with a team's logo the size of a quarter. It's essentially a 10 dollar champion sweatshirt with a Lakers logo on it, selling for 50 dollars, but in Celtics colors. The NBA also seems to think you really really really want a polo shirt with their logo on it, but in green of course. 2. NFL - When I think Irish, my mind obviously thinks Bengal tiger. White and green Jaguars hats are also very Irish. The NFL hitched a lot of thei...

Kobe Bryant Points: 61 FG: 19-31 FT: 20-20 3Pt: 3-6 Assists: 3 Rebounds: 0 Blocks: 1 Edge on LBJ: All of the Shooting Categories including scoring. Lebron James Points: 52 FG: 17-33 FT: 16-19 3Pt: 2-7 Assists: 11 Rebounds: 10 Blocks: 2 Edge on Kobe: All of the Peripheral Categories Online Surveys  &  Market Research

AFC #5 Florida at #4 Georgia Tech in Atlanta Florida Key Wins: Miami, LSU, UGA (n), @FSU, South Carolina Florida Losses: Ole Miss Georgia Tech Key Wins: @BC, @Clemson, Miami, @UGA, Georgia Tech Losses: @VT, UVA, @UNC #6 TCU at #3 Southern Cal in Los Angeles TCU Key Wins: BYU TCU Bad Losses: @OU, @Utah Southern Cal Key Wins: tOSU, Oregon, Cal Southern Cal Losses: @Oregon St. Online Surveys  &  Market Research Online Surveys  &  Market Research NFC #6 Texas at #3 Penn St. in Happy Valley Texas Key Wins: OU(n), Mizzou, Okie St., @Kansas Texas Losses: @TT Penn St. Key Wins: Oregon St., @tOSU, Michigan St. Penn St. Bad Losses: @Iowa #5 Texas Tech at #4 Cincinnati in Cincy Cincy Key Wins: USF, @WVU, Pitt Cincy Bad Losses: @Oklahoma, @UConn Texas Tech Key Wins: Nebraska, @Kansas, Texas, Okie St. Texas Tech Bad Losses: @Oklahoma Online Surveys  &  Market Research Online Surveys  &  Market Research

If you want to see all of the Harris Poll Ballots in the Same Place to see if you can find more ridiculous outliers, Go Here . The Harris Poll Voters are a mish-mosh of the famous and the random and while they have less conflicting interests than coaches obviously do , their ballots are just as wacked out if not more so. Larry Keech Has a Mid-Major Crush, Makes the Case for the Worst Ballot On the Planet 1 Man and 1 Man alone voted Utah #1, and that man is Larry Keech. He followed that up by ranking Boise St. #2 and Texas #3 then Oklahoma and Florida. But the mid major crush does not end there. Ball St. at 10 despite the embarrassing championship loss. TCU at #11. And Rice at #18? Seriously Rice. And of course he went out in a mid-major flurry. Western Michigan at #23, East Carolina at #24 and Tulsa at #25. This same bright jackass voted Hawaii #1 last year. Any chance his vote can be revoked? Thurman Thomas is Anti-Leach Thurman Thomas voted his former squad Okie St. at #12 so only...

I've ventured into the quest of making an Interactive Harris Poll much like the USA Today Poll . Below is the Google Docs attempt, its not overly interactive and its not the platform to get it done. It's an ok attempt but I'm still working towards the optimal solution. Here's how it works. Each tab highlights the votes received by 3 different teams. So if you want to see Florida, Oklahoma and Texas look at the 1-3 tab. If you want to see Bama, USC and Penn St. look at the 4-6. Etc. When you scroll from left to right on each tab it will be easy to view the outliers. If you want a detailed look at an individual ballot just click on one of the names in the top row you will be redirected to their top 25 ballot on the Harris' website. Unfortunately Google Docs does not support Vertical Text which is lame, so you're just getting the first two letters of their first name. Here's a list of the voters .

The traditional Army Navy game happened this saturday, and once again Navy obliterated Army. Navy extended its win streak to 7 by running running and more running. The Midshipmen had 368 rushing yards while while Army mustered only 154 total yards in the 34-0 rout. But the pain wasn't just in the score or the play but also in aesthetics. Isn't it bad enough that Army is in the midst of an incredibly poor streak against their rival and were completely embarrassed on the field. Did the fashionistas at the school have to go out and force them to wear the most hideous uniforms of all time as well? I mean how much do they want to punish these kids that are going to serve our country? It just seems cruel. Online Surveys  &  Market Research

As entertaining and close fought as the Jets Pats game may be tonight, it probably won't be half the battle that a Kris Jenkins vs. Vince Wilfork Sumo Wrestling Match would be. Both men are absolutely huge and strong like ox. Let's look at the tale of the tape. Vince Wilfork Kris Jenkins Age 27 29 State of Birth Florida Michigan Height 6' 2 6'4 Weight 325 349 College The U Maryland Pro Bowls 1 3 Draft Pick Round 1: #21 Round 2: #44 Career Sacks 5.5 23 Online Surveys & Market Research

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Its the Olympic games and there are a ton of events to determine the strongest pound per pound man, the best fighter, the best swimmer, the fastest man, etc. But which sport really is the fruitiest? Which sport do you think you would most likely see the contestants partying it up at the local All Man Night Club. Field Hockey - Maybe its the complete US bias talking but Field Hockey is a girls sport. No man I have ever met has played field hockey and no man I have ever met has ever shown a desire to play field hockey. Equestrian - Prancing around the infield on a horse seems pretty fruity to me. Its not racing the horse its prancing around a ridiculously decorated field and making the horse do all the work while wearing some odd suit helmet combination. Diving - They comfortably walk around in bathing suits that is probably smaller than the typical bandanna. And their goal is to jump around in circles and make as little splash as possible. Most men opt for the Cannon Ball appro...

Its the Olympic games and there are a ton of events to determine the strongest pound per pound man, the best fighter, the best swimmer, the fastest man, etc. But which sport really is the manliest? Weight Lifting - Really whats more than lifting a shit load of weight directly over your head? The actual attempt takes about 5 seconds and all you do in training is make yourself stronger and stronger and more durable. It's tough to think of something more testosterone driven than weight lifting. Shooting - Screw testosterone driven, the manliest sport in the Olympics is shooting. What kind of man really works that hard to get himself in shape? Getting in shape isn't that manly. No shooting shot guns and rifles now thats manly. You pack your gun up head to the range and shoot at stuff. That's your training. Simplistic and manly. Wrestling - Any of the fighting events (Boxing, Judo, etc.) could have been used here as well, but Wrestling is used because its the oldest ...

The Manny Ramirez fallout came to an abrupt end but has been boiling for many a year. Here a 4 main candidates for the the fallout. Manny Ramirez - Manny being Manny only goes so far. When you sit out a friday night against the Yankees complaining of injuries that don't exist then you have certainly crossed the line. Scott Boras - The devil was hired by Manny in the off season. As Tone said "You don't hire Scott Boras if you want your option to get picked up." And well it's true, if Manny doesn't garner a new contract than Scott Boras essentially gets nothing out of Manny. However, if he gets him a massive long term deal than he gets a nice cut. Theo Epstein - The day Theo stepped through the door he seemingly didn't want Manny on the roster. He was the one who was so eager to see which teams were interested in Manny that he placed him on waivers. He was the one that came out to the public saying that if Manny was ok with being traded that he would...

They are the Spurs they have been good and very annoying for a long time. Each of their players has certainly gotten on your nerve at some time or another and chances are if given the chance you would want to kick at least one of the in the groin. But which of them is the absolute worst. 1. Manu Ginobili - He's a foreigner so maybe its just natural for him to flop whenever he possibly can but it doesn't make it any less annoying. Additionally, he despite being an NBA player apparently needs to be baby as all you ever hear about is how the Spurs have to hold off on Manu's minutes so he won't get worn down for the playoffs. Additionally, he seems to always be the one who hits the big shots. 2. Tim Duncan - He's one of the best players of all time, he's the reason that the Spurs have 4 NBA titles and he plays the game well fundamentally so what is there not to like. How about the fact that he never shows any kind of personality to anyone in the publics eyes is one...

Every year it comes down to one day and one matchup for all the marbles. In every pool in American tonights game will decide the winner of the cash. For me, with a Memphis victory I shall take home around $200 bones, which is a nice bonus for a weekend trip to Fenway. But for 2 people there's much more riding on tonights game. A chance at 10 grand is at stake for two people all on the basis of filling out a free bracket for the fun of it. If Kansas wins then the current leader InsanePIV shall be given a nice 10,000 check from ESPN. If Memphis wins than Fantavet currently tied for fifth place will leap over the rest of the competition and take home 10,000 gs. Talk about a rooting interest. So what would you do if put in this situation? Would you go out and buy as much KU or Memphis apparel as possible and deck yourself out for the game? Would you get so nervous that you refuse to watch? Would you just watch the game like any other? Would you get so damn excited at the p...