The Rundown: January 8th, 2009

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Today's top stories:

NCAAFB: The FedEx Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game is tonight!

And don't try and say that whole event's name before the game begins. The champ will be crowned before you're finished.

There's been plenty of intriguing discussion back and forth on this game. I think most would agree that, if nothing else, it's the most up in the air title game we've had since probably the 2003 LSU/Oklahoma(/USC) tilt. People forget this when breathlessly calling the 2005 USC/Texas game the best ever, but a lot of people, myself included, figured USC would win that one rather easily. This time around, the general opinion seems to be that Florida will win (ESPN's vote, I believe, has the Gators favored about 60/40), but I'd say most of us don't really know what's going to happen. Florida has a very good defense and a very good offense, led by the speedsters Jeff Demps, Percy Harvin and Chris Rainey, and that guy who won a Heisman once too. Brandon Spikes leads the Gators' D, and he's also the one taking part in the back and forth smack talk with Oklahoma. ("Sam Bradford hasn't faced an SEC defense." "Well, Tim Tebow hasn't had to beat a Big 12 quarterback!")

Oklahoma counters with this year's Heisman winner, Sam Bradford, and the highest-scoring offense in college football history. Oklahoma scored 60 pretty much every time they stepped on a field this year, but I really doubt they're expecting that to happen against Florida. However, Oklahoma is incredibly formidable offensively, and they're absolutely loaded with weapons. DeMarco Murray, Chris Brown, J

Seriously, though: When did conference pride become such a big deal? I don't remember a lot of this prior to 2006, but ever since Florida crushed Ohio State in that year's title game, it seems like every conference's fans go overboard trying to outdo each other in the trash-talk department, with SEC fans generally agreed to be the most ridiculously over the top.

Anyway, tonight's game (8:30 pm, Fox), should be a very good, very close game. I'll take the Gators to win. My bowl confidence picks (which are in shambles), have five confidence points on the Gators, with a tiebreaker score of 35-31. So I'll go with that. Should be a heck of a show.

Other news: BC fired Jeff Jagodzinski after all after he interviewed with the Jets...Urban Meyer says he's in favor of Mack Brown of Texas, Kyle Whittingham of Utah, Pete Carroll of USC, and pretty much anyone else who feels like it voting their own team #1 in the coaches' poll after the national title game even though it violates their agreement...Georgia's Matt Stafford and Knowshon Moreno, both first-round locks in the NFL draft, are going to jump...Navy's coach, whose name is impossible to spell, got a contract extension.

NCAAB: The Big East rules the roost in college hoops.

Now, in college basketball, the conference pride thing becomes a much, much bigger deal. Your schedule has a huge effect on where you're seeded, which can have a direct effect on your chance to win the national title. Yes, it's true that in college football your conference plays a part, but for the most part, teams can control that by simply winning all their games. In college hoops, you can be a top-of-the-heap team in your league (say, the SEC), but you're still probably not going to get thought of as highly as a 5th or 6th place team from a better league (the Big East or ACC, most years).

That's why I feel comfortable saying that the Big East rules the roost in college basketball. During the Duke/Davidson game last night, the ESPN ticker for in-progress games involving ranked teams was all Big East teams except for Boston College's game with Harvard. (Which the Eagles lost, giving the Crimson their first-ever win over a ranked team. Good job.) Of course, with nine ranked teams in the league, ESPN has little choice but to run such a ticker. Nine of the top 22 teams in the country, in fact, hail from the Big East. Oddly, no other teams from the league are receiving votes in either poll, but seriously: NINE.

All that needs to be said on the subject is that Georgetown opened Big East play by visiting Connecticut, hosting Pitt, and traveling to Notre Dame, all in the period of a week. All those teams are in the top 13. The Hoyas are 1-2 in league play after that stretch. Care to wonder how often that happens with other conferences? Another "the Big East is ridiculous" note: Notre Dame will play seven out of eight games during one month-ish long stretch against ranked teams! (Full disclosure: One of those is against non-league foe UCLA.)

It should be very entertaining to see what develops in this war-of-attrition league. League teams will have a few breaks in between the gauntlet (Rutgers, DePaul, South Florida, St. John's), but even those are not gimmes. (ND has already lost to the Red Storm, and the Scarlet Knights gave top-ranked Pitt a fight.)

Also of note from last night: How about Michigan coming back from down 20 to take down IU in overtime? The Hoosiers have now played pretty well in a losing effort twice in league play. You have to figure the wins will come, but this was nothing less than a choke job on their parts. The Wolverines have as many good wins as anyone in America, but playing like this is a good way to keep them out of the big dance. Luckily for them they stole the win anyway, thanks to IU shooting 2/7 from the line in the extra frame.

Last night's Top 25 scores, with the home team in bold:
#2 Duke 79, Davidson 67 (Steph Curry had 29 points)
#3 UNC 108, College of Charleston 70
#9 Syracuse 85, DePaul 68
#15 Marquette 81, Rutgers 76
#21 Louisville 71, South Florida 57
Harvard 82, #24 Boston College 70
Gonzaga 89, #25 Tennessee 79 (OT)

Game to watch tonight:
#19 Minnesota at Iowa (7 pm, ESPN2). Not a lot going on tomorrow in the world of college basketball, but if the Golden Gophers want to be taken seriously nationwide, they need to win games like this: where they're clearly the better team but are playing a league road game. Tubby Smith's done a good job rebuilding Minnesota quickly, and starting 2-1 in the Big Ten would be a good way to get things rolling in preparation for what they hope is a berth in March.

NBA: What's up with Boston?

The Celtics were not only roundly considered the best team in the NBA and favorites to repeat after the first month and a half of the season, but talk was that they'd break the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' record of 72 wins after they won 19 in a row at one point. Well, that's down the drain after they lost yet again last night, this time at home to Houston and some guy named Von Wafer who hit a game-winning trey. It's their sixth loss out of eight and sends them to eight losses overall, so talk of record-breaking is up in smoke. In fact, Boston is in danger of falling to the 3 seed in the Eastern Conference if the season ended today. They're already behind Cleveland and are only a half-game up on the best team no one knows, the Orlando Magic.

If you ask me, it's not a big deal. The Lakers won three straight titles without really trying in a game before April, so a few regular-season losses aren't going to kill Boston. It's worth asking the question of whether it may affect their playoff aura of invincibility, but then again, this team was taken to seven games by an under-.500 team last spring.

Other NBA notables: Danny Granger had 37 points and the game-winning three to single-handedly beat Phoenix out West...Randy Foye scored 32 and led Minnesota (?) to their fourth win in a row...Dwight Howard fell just short of a 20-20 game, but his team beat Atlanta on the road anyway.

What to watch for tonight:

Only two games tonight, and neither of them are of note (Knicks at Dallas; Clips at San Antonio). Take the night off if you're an NBA fan I guess.

NFL: The Mangenius got another job already.

Eric Mangini was unemployed only about a week until the Cleveland Browns snapped him up. After their short-lived Bill Cowher hopes went away, Mangini was probably the best option Cleveland had left. He can't really be judged on last season in New York, if the reports that he wasn't a big fan of the Brett Favre thing all along are true. It is humorous that Cleveland replaced the former Patriots' defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel with...another former Patriots' defensive coordinator.

Cleveland was an underrated soap opera last year (as a Brady Quinn fan, I kept a close eye on the situation). It wasn't quite as bad as Oakland, but between the Derek Anderson fiasco, Kellen Winslow, Jamal Lewis saying his team quit, Braylon Edwards dropping anything that came his way, and Phil Savage dropping f-bombs on e-mailers left and right, it was quite the circus. I sometimes wonder if Braylon dropped his bottle of 5-Hour Energy numerous times during filming of his incredibly wooden commercial for the product.

Despite all this, there's talent there. A lot of it, in fact. There's a reason Cleveland was supposed to be good. You know, before failing to score an offensive TD in the final six games of the season (!!!). Mangini has a franchise QB, a good wideout if he ever learns how to catch, and one of the league's most explosive tight ends, in more ways than one, to work with. We'll see what he can do.

Other news: The Pac-Man era is over in Dallas: he was released...Tomlinson almost certainly won't play in Pittsburgh this weekend with a torn groin tendon...Anquan Boldin may miss the Cards' round 2 game in Carolina...Brian Westbrook is a go for the Eagles/Giants game.

MLB's Hot Stove: Smoltz to Boston.

At this point, it's just getting ridiculous. Any remotely desirable free agent appears to be a lock to go to Boston or New York. If you ask me, as long as neither team makes the World Series, as occurred in 2008, they're not overly relevant. The Sawx are also apparently going to sign Rocco Baldelli, which is an interesting move. Baldelli's well-publicized condition should make for interesting material as he heads to Press Heaven, Boston.

Other signings: The Dodgers may grab Trevor Hoffman...Jason Giambi's headed back to Oakland!...the Reds sign Jerry Hairston Jr...and Baltimore imports a Japanese pitcher.

Last Word:

Sadly for the NHL, the Jarko Ruutu biting incident isn't even a new low for the league. Ruutu was suspended two games for taking a bite out of the Sabres' Andrew Peters. Does anyone even notice anymore? Apart from the Winter Classic (a fantastic idea), the NHL just doesn't seem to matter anymore. That's too bad, because hockey is fun as hell to watch in person.

Enjoy your day, everyone.