When it comes to going above and beyond the call of duty in predicting the NCAA Tournament bracket, Joe Lunardi of ESPN has been the man to beat for years.
Take for example this year. We’re still a week away from Thanksgiving and Lunardi has already unveiled his first full mock bracket for a tournament that is not taking place for over four months. It’s November. The tournament is called “March” Madness and here we are in November looking to see if our team made the cut in this fantasyland bracket.
But that’s the nature of the Bracketology brand that Lunardi has mastered. No one in the sports media drops science on the topic quite as early as he Joey Bracket does, right?
Not so fast.
It seems that quietly over at Sportsline.com - the internet arm of the TV network that holds the tournament rights - has thrown their name into the ring to see who can be the first to reveal a mock bracket based on absolutely nothing other than pre-season hype. Gary Parrish was tapped by CBS to go head up with Lunardi and from our research, it appears as if Mr. Parrish has beaten Lunardi to the punch by a full 24 hours.
Parrish dropped his first edition of "Projecting the Field" on November 11, Lunardi hit the snooze button one too many times and released his first Bracketology on November 12.
In this game speed is all that matters as accuracy can’t really be a factor since we’re four freaking months away from Selection Sunday.
Accuracy or no accuracy, Parrish knew he’d won this year and he flaunted it…
The first interesting game will probably be UMass at Southern Illinois on Wednesday. The first nationally relevant game is Kentucky at North Carolina on Nov. 18. The first Projecting the Field and Projecting the Seeds are right here.
Rumors are swirling in Bristol that in response, Lunardi has already drawn up a preliminary draft of the 2010 bracket and is set to release it one hour after “One Shining Moment” is over. Beat that, CBS.
Crap That Actually Came From Somebody's Mouth
"But (Ryan) Howard got hot in September, hitting 11 home runs and driving in 32 runs to carry the Phillies into the playoffs. That's the very definition of valuable…" - Phil Sheridan, Philly Inquirer
Actually Phil, that’s the definition of being valuable for one month out of six.
"The group-think association argument for Pujols, if I'm smart enough to get it right, is that he single-handedly kept the Cardinals in the wild-card race. That is brilliant, except it ignores the presence of Ryan Ludwick, Rick Ankiel and Troy Glaus (so much for "single-handedly"), and the fact that the National League wild-card race was a watered-down farce." – Phil Sheridan
Pujols had Ludwick, Ankiel and Glaus. Meanwhile, Howard had Utley, Burrell, Rollins and Lidge. Who do you think has the better supporting cast? And the NL Wild Card was such a watered-down farce that the Cardinals - who had two teams ahead of them - finished a whopping four games out of the playoffs and six behind the powerhouse Phillies.
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"Johan Santana (undefeated after June 28) stood out because there was so much pressure not just being in New York, but to be who he is." - Chris De Luca, Chicago Sun Times, explaining one reason why Tim Lincecum didn't make his top 3 ballot for NL Cy Young
Seriously, we're beginning to think these writers do this stuff just for publicity. Whatever the case, Johan Santana's statistical season is only part of the equation in deciding his standing as a Cy Young candidate. Playing a in a huge market with "pressure" counts a lot too. Right.
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"Welcome everybody I'm Brad Nessler along with my sleeping partner Jimmy Dykes. Quite frankly, this is past my bed time!" - Brad Nessler
We can certainly sympathize with Nessler beginning a college basketball broadcast at midnight, but the "sleeping partner" details are probably best kept off-air.
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That Time of the Year Again
We've said it before and we'll say it again - one of our favorite times of the year here at the Media Circus headquarters is when Sports Illustrated begins the process of unveiling the Sportsperson of the Year.
It's not the suspense of the actual winner that we care about so much as it is the fact that they encourage their stable of writers to each submit a nomination for who they feel should win and why. And while we have no evidence, we theorize that there might be a pretty attractive bonus coming to the writer whose nomination is the most bizarre or difficult to justify.
Last year our list of favorite nominations was topped by George Dohrmann's suggestion that the award be presented to the people who were caring for Mike Vick's abandoned pit bulls. Two years ago someone nominated Vince McMahon.
As we've come to expect, this year's stable has a few head scratchers...
Jonah Freedman selects Brian McBride because he was able to keep his mouth shut during his soccer career.
Seth Davis picked Barack Obama because he plays basketball - and did so after casting his vote on Election Day!
Michael Farber nominated the Central Washington woman's softball team because two of them carried an injured opponent around the bases after a homerun and apparently restored "our faith not only in sport but in human nature".
Richard Hoffer went with Bernard Hopkins, the 43-year old boxer who fought all of two times in 2008...and went 1-1.
Alexander Hoffman picked Abhinav Bindra for being India's first individual Olympic gold medalist ever after winning something called the 10-meter air rifle.
The others included names like Stephon Curry, which would be fine so long as the award included an SI centerfold of his mother.
In the meantime, we're going to stand by our claim that the SI Sportsman of the Year has become completely ridiculous.
When all you want is football -- and other fluff
Last week we had fun with NFL Network's promo hyping the Favres/Patriots game on Thursday night. As it turns out, the "Hero" message intertwined with Our Favre had less to do with #4 and more to do with the television theme of the network's ad campaign.
We came to this conclusion after watching the promo for tomorrow night's game between the Steelers and Bengals (we're not big viewers of "Heroes, otherwise we may have previously spotted the trend).
"On the next episode of NFL Network's Thursday Night Football:
there is a place where few can survive.
It's the territory of one man who defenses with unyielding force.
Tresspass, and you will be cast off ... of Polamalu Island.
When all you want is football, there's a place that has it all. NFL Network's Thursday Night Football. Bengals. Steelers."
Pardon us if you think the whole "Survivor" thing is cool when brought to life in football terms, because we certainly think it's a stretch. While we're on the subject, it's kind of odd that the league of extraordinary hype and hyperbole claims their mother network is "all football" all the time when their individually broadcast games are being compared to Hollywood creations.
We Should Be Thankful for Good Football, But ... ...
Speaking of Thursday NFL football, the NFL needs to ax "tradition" in favor of quality games. This year's Thanksgiving schedule includes the winless Lions hosting the undefeated Titans and the Cowboys hosting the Seahawks, in what will surely be dubbed a "rematch of the '06 Wild Card". The nightcap pits the Cardinals at the Eagles (we're hoping for an Andy Reid/Mr. Belvedere theme for the NFL Network promotion).
If the NBC Sunday night games can use the flex scheduling method, there's no reason the Lions and Cowboys on Thanksgiving should be excluded from such a process. Broadcasting the Lions is the football equivalent of the NBA featuring the L.A. Clippers every Thanksgiving. It just doesn't make much sense.
And apparently, we're not the only ones who feel this way. The advertisers aren't all scrambling for Thanksgiving Day slots:
Fox has one or two units left in its Thanksgiving Day game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Seattle Seahawks, but CBS is said to be having a hard time unloading time in its Turkey Day match-up. This may be a function of a profound mismatch it has in the Detroit Lions and the Tennessee Titans.
Sure, the struggling e***omy might be playing a part, but something tells us if this weekend's Favres/Titans game was slated for Week 13 and moved to Thanksgiving Day weeks in advance, those slots would be filled.
Oh well. At least we'll get to see those old-school Lions uniforms. Daunte Culpepper will look awesome throwing interceptions in blue and silver.
Bob Carpenter Memorial Snappy Line
It's not often that the Carpster salutes the headline writers, especially given their recognition every few days in the Morning Tailgate. However, sometimes his eyes are halted and his mind transfixed when somebody over-steps their line.
Consider the following picture Bobby's way of making an example of someone's headline, rather than a salute to good-hearted snappiness.
While the attempt is there, the Bobber has never and will never approve of snap with violent overtones. He warns everyone to monitor what their children are viewing on the Internet and asks that you stop going to Foxsports.com in the immediate future. Vehement thumbs down from Robert C.
The Media Circus is written by Josh Bacott and Patrick Imig. They swear this stuff is real. Email them at info@joesportsfan.com.