11:00am | Welcome to our Picking Winners edition of Notes on My Napkin — offered for entertainment only — no wagering please.
We start with our expert selections of the college football bowl games even though the 49ers (like the Trojans, Hurricanes, et cetera) weren’t selected this year.
On Saturday the 17th, there are three games we analyze: Wyoming over Temple because Wyo is one of three colleges that wear the wildly popular brown and gold unis; Ohio over Utah State because my first college game was in Athens; and San Diego State over Louisiana Lafayette because we want to suck up to our new conference pals, the Aztecs.
December 20 comes and we pick Marshall over FIU although I have transcripts with course work from both esteemed institutions. On December 21 TCU will crush La Tech because ex Niner Prentice Perkins coaches there; December 22 Boise State is the easy choice over Arizona State because, well everybody beats the Devil out of ASU.
Christmas Eve action will see Nevada falling to Southern Miss (SM because I used to get 1099 forms for consulting at Bret Farve U). The day after Christmas starts a run of even more odd match-ups: North Carolina will win by a safety over Missouri; Western Michigan (black, brown and gold gets the pick) beating Purdue; and my NC State ACC pals out run Louisville who stole a QB from my Hurricanes. (Did I tell you the Hurricanes saw the mess that USC made by not starting their penalties when they first could and played in a bowl? The price: with their best team in 15 years, USC sits home with no BCS bucks or that Heisman hardware for Matt Barkley).
On Wednesday the 28th, things heat up a bit with a battle between the jet planes from Air Force and the Rockets from Toledo. And the winner is… Can I get back to you on that? I keep nodding off. But I am more confident that Texas will put a licking on Cal since the karma for Cal is still suffering since they temporarily dropped baseball.
Bring on Thursday the 29th, which has a pair of decent contests: disappointed Florida State (started 5th in the USA) plays disappointed Notre Dame in Orlando, which is a home game for the Noles so they win. Ditto Baylor has a virtual home game in San Antonio (I was in the Army there) and clocks Washington because it just ain’t a PAC 12 year.
December 30th brings four games and the winners are touchdown crazy Tulsa; Dr. Doug Robinson’s alma mater Iowa State; Wake Forest in 7 overtimes over Miss State; and Oklahoma whacking Iowa. New Year’s Eve winners are Northwestern, Ga. Tech, Cincinnati, UCLA (huh?) and Auburn (by a blocked FG.)
January 2nd has wall to wall football so here is one you can skip (don’t watch those losers Ohio Sate play Florida — and one you can’t miss — Wisconsin does the chicken dance over the Ducks of Oregon in the Rose Bowl. January 3 is a BC$ game, where my brother Jim’s alma mater Va Tech takes down Michigan in the Sugar and the next night Clemson survives my dad’s college, West Virginia in the Orange.
The Cotton Bowl has been cancelled due to my lack of interest, but Pitt and Northern Illinois win the next two days because the Panthers are suffering in hoops and Northern Illinois is where LBSU official scorer Shayne Schroeder graduated. So it is now January 9th and the whole world, or those who drink a lot of Red Bull, will try and stay awake for LSU beating Alabama 6 to 5.
AND NOW THE REST OF THE DUST
Edis Dervisevic made the UNC ESPN pregame montage when he made a not-quite defensive move against Kansas all American Thomas Robinson — sort of his Bryon-Russell-moment remembered that old timer Niner of hoop tried to defend this Michael Jordan fellow.
San Diego State made BWC folks happy when they announced on Wednesday it will join the Big East Conference in football beginning in 2013 (a move school officials estimate will bring in at least $4.9 million annually (up from $1.5 million) in new television revenue) and then play everything else in the Big West. The Aztecs Big West sports will be drunk with bucks. Last football chat: I voted for the Honey Badger and his platinum suit in the Heisman Trophy show. How can you turn that down a shiny marsupial?
We don’t approve of wagering… But folks watch that stuff like the “covering” that Long Beach State has done in games at Pitt, Kansas and North Carolina (places where not-so-pure folks reside).
Former 49er v-ball aces on the USA team (coach Alan Knipe and players David Lee and Paul Lotman) went 6-5 in the World Cup so their 2012 fate awaits a strong U.S. finish in the NORCECA qualifying event set for May. It is clearly nervous time in this the first Olympics since they changed the rule about an automatic invite for the defending Olympic champ.
Web humor: the best line I heard today in reference to realignment, “Conference USA is so confused they are thinking of changing their name to Conference. WTF.”
Last add, after tough games at Montana, No. 8 Louisville, No. 13 Kansas, No. 6 North Carolina the Monson boys now get ready to play three games in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu starting December 22. The Beach in those bee-u-ti-full gold jerseys open the tournament with No. 15 Xavier (minus some of their players involved in that Cincy- X-Man brawl over the weekend.) LBSU could also face Kansas State or Clemson in Hawaii, both of which advanced to the NCAA Tournament last year. Even the road in paradise is tough.