Rest in Peace: Jim Rome is Burning

Today marks the end of Rome's run on ESPN.  His last show of Jim Rome is Burning is airing today, 4:30 on ESPN2.  He is leaving to join the CBS Sports Network for his daily show "that will be a little different" than his current show, with the first show airing April 3rd.

I have probably watched around 80% of JRIB, starting my sophomore year in college when it debuted in the fall/winter of 2003-04 at night.  I would come home from pick up games at JO South or Larkins (now the RPAC) to catch it.  Then he took a hiatus.  Then came DVR and it has been on my watch-list ever since.

It's just another show of mine that I enjoyed watching that is going away, with no real conclusion.  Other shows that didn't "end" that were in my list were:
American Dreams, NBC (2002-2004, 3 seasons) - cancelled
Chappelle's Show, Comedy Central (2002-2005, 2+ seasons) - host, um, quit
Lights Out, FX (2010, 1 season) - cancelled

Rome leaves ESPN after his contract expires.  He says there isn't any drama like some previous situations (see: Dan Patrick), but is joining a new family.  The ESPN Book guy reported that when ESPN decided to change their "happy hour" schedule and moved JRIB to ESPN2 off of ESPN, Rome found out by reading the script and on the top it said ESPN2.  Not exactly how you want to find out you are changing stations. 

At CBS, he will be featured in different sports, such as the NFL, NCAA Final Four and Tennis.  He appeared on the CBS NFL pregame show before AFC Championship, so he will do more than he did at ESPN.  Nothing is changing from his radio show, and for a short while, he will be able to focus more on his radio show instead of double-dipping every day.  Mark Shapiro, who brought him back to ESPN, is behind his new shows at CBS and it seems to be a nice fit along with something different for Rome.


There are a lot of moments from the show, however here are a few of my favorites from JRIB that stick out off the top of my head:

Rome gets all messed up while doing his show live outside of the Super Bowl in Miami (2007)...the teleprompter is slow and he inserts periods in the middle of every sentence.  Very hard to watch.

Rome's correspondence piece with Delonte West.  Cavs, Delonte, doughnuts.

Final Burn: Annoying pick up basketball guy.

Final Burn: Fantasy Football guy

Final Burn: Modern Warfare 3/Call of Duty guy

I'm going to have a void on my DVR, which will hopefully get filled by Lebatard who is taking over his slot.  Once Rome returns to CBS Sports Net, I'll pick it up again, and when he gets going with this monthly show "Rome" on Showtime in November, I'll be sure to check that as well.  As for JRIB, I will miss you.  He is out.

This move was first reported by The Big Lead.  Here is the post.

College Basketball Unis - Nike going PLATINUM



Courtesy: Nike, Uniwatch


If you have been watching college basketball, you may have noticed that random teams are wearing gray this year.  In the past, Texas, WVU, UConn, Ohio State, Georgetown among others have gone gray.  Hell, last night, Purdue went gray or a gray/gold set.

Today, Nike whipped out new grey "Platinum" uniforms for their "Elite" schools.  The universities include: Arizona, UConn, Duke, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Syracuse.  The women have also been included with Baylor and UConn getting the platinum treatment as well.  What they all have in common (besides final fours as a Nike school)?  None of the teams have gray in their school colors.  Syracuse fans have been all up in arms since the gray has been rumored.  They see as their school should wear orange and not a color of their rivals (Georgetown).  Well, their worst nightmare is here.  Here are what the unis look like.  I couldn't really find any good pictures, but the best come from this Lost Letterman post.

Arizona:
Worn: vs. UCLA (2/25)

UCONN:
Worn: vs. Notre Dame (1/29)

Duke:
Worn: vs. Maryland (2/11)...take that Under Armour

Florida:
Worn: vs. Tennessee (2/11)

Kentucky:
Worn: vs. Tennessee (1/31)

UNC:
Worn: vs. Maryland (2/29)...take that Under Armour

Syracuse:
Worn: vs. USF (2/22)

I don't mind adding a grey uniform, but once again, Nike makes a template and the teams look all the same (as in they are Team Nike).  I like the name on the front of jersey but one of my pet peeves is white numbers on a light color jersey.  Grey shirts should be treated as white and have a darker color for the number.

For the case of Duke, Syracuse and Kentucky, their school-specific pattern is kept but I have no idea why Nike wouldn't release pictures of the uniforms where you can actually see the details.  Also, they have stars above their numbers on the back with the number of championships (with the year inside the star) and the names are under the numbers.

All their "new" uniforms on manikins are in some weird dim lighted future dimension or something.  Whatever...with so many games, a team could have more uniforms than Oregon and if you can sell jerseys and shorts, why not have every team with a pair of unis with their school colors, black, white and grey?  And then "special" uniforms for a random game and then a "special" March Madness jersey, and then a new jersey with all the newest technology and sweat-whisking fabric?  And you cannot forget a special throwback.  You know when Ohio State gets a new uni, I'm all over the new shorts.  So I guess it works.

With a lot more detail and better commentary, check out my guy Paul Lukas at Uni Watch.

Uni Watch
Uni Watch full column

*Minnesota Update* College Uniform Release Day: What they wore back then now and beyond, featuring 2011 Nike Pro Combat Uniforms

1/20 Minnesota Gopher Update
The Golden Gophers first unvieled their helmet, and today they released a video showing their new uniforms, like it was a new ipod or car or something.  As a noted Buckeye honk, Minnesota is a nobody in the B1G so this video is kind of amusing.  It has Alabama or Clemson "swag" (and I use swag as a dig) but the acutal uniforms seems to be pretty plain with all the new nike technology.  I was fully expecting an Oregon-ization with some black and some silver/shiny to be featuring outside of the maroon and gold, but it looks like Nike went back to the glory days of the early 2000s.  Shoulder numbers, no stripes, and a contrasting collar.  Plain pants with some type of honey-comb padding.  Maroon, gold and white shirts and pants.  The numbers have a pattern that has something to do with Eskimos or the lakes, but overall I love the look.  Simple, classy, true to the colors and with the newest fabric.  Well done Gophers, well done.  You could have totally mucked it up, but you went the other way.  And no black jersey (that they show).  Here's the video:

The Jay-Z song from 3 years ago is a nice touch, by the way.  I don't think Sean Carter even knows what Minnesota or a gopher even is.  Anyway, in the time of (see below) uniforms, the Gophers keep it classy.  BRAVO.

Here is a video that explains the details of the uniform.  The numbers have a brick pattern on the white and gold (maroon numbers) jerseys.  The number font goes back to the font that was used on the 1940 jerseys when the Gophers won the national championship.  There is no mention of overall look being similar to the early 2000s but I think they look almost identical. 

Here's the video that explains the details:

Here are videos of the players showing them in a photo shoot:

Schticky

Vince the Sham-Wow guy is back...and apparently he is ok making fun of himself (mug shot)...here's the Official Schticky commercial

*RESULTS UPDATE*Straight Ca$h Homey - BOWL SEASON NCAA Picks

Bowl Week Final:
I finished 5-2 and took the overall championship.  My final record was 67-35-3 (.638) with 11-4 in money games.  Brad went 4-3 so I won by 3 games.  The winner gets their earnings along with $20 from every other player.  That puts me over $350 for the year.

How I did it:
If you have read what I have posted about betting, you know that I like to take the favorites with the big offenses and I also like to bet against teams that are horrible.
I also made a spreadsheet of all my picks so I can look at the trends and what each team did the past few weeks.  I got on the Houston bandwagon and rode them for 4 money games.
I also kept the games I liked but took off the board, so I could see what my gut told me the past week and to see how I did with the games I liked, but took off.  I ended up around .500 with the "alternate" games.

My consistent picks this year have been with...
Oklahoma State - 12 picks (8-4), 0 Money Games
Wisconsin - 9 picks (7-2), 1-1 in Money GamesAlabama - 7 picks (5-2), 1 Money Game
LSU - 7 picks (7-0), 1-0 in Money Game
Houston - 7 (6-1), 4-0 in Money Games
Oregon - 4 picks (2-2), 0-1 in Money Games

College Gameday Picks:
11 picks, 9-2 record, 2-1 Money Games

My consistent picks against:
Minnesota
Iowa State
Kansas
Kentucky
Ole Miss

Out of 105 games, I took the favorite 87 times (60-27).  I took the underdog 18 times (12-6).

Conclusion: This year was lucky.  I took the favorites and they covered 69% of the time.  When I took the underdog, they covered 2/3 of the time.  I looked at a few teams that should win and I looked at a few teams that are bad and should be blown out.  This first week, I wanted to make the Gameday game as the money game, but then I realized that if you lose the money game, you pay up a lot.  If you win, you get some money.  I also learned that one game here or one game there isn't going to make the season so if one team kicks a late fieldgoal to beat the spread by 1, I shouldn't beat myself up about it.  The fact I won is great, but every week I had 7 games circled and it was the most fun thing I have done.  I really hope this continues down the road and I doubt I will ever come near the amount of success I had this year.
Basically I say this: Go with your gut, have fun, and when in doubt, take the teams you want to see win.  And never bet with money you don't have or can't afford.  HAVE FUN! See you for the 2012 season.  Hint: I'm taking USC, LSU and Oklahoma a lot.

I am currently 2 games ahead of Brad for the best record with one week left.  If I hold on, I get $20 from the other 10 guys in the pool along with my winnings that are totaled at $137 as of week 14.  For all the games I didn't take to Bodog or Sportsbook.com, this may be a great way to bring in the new year.  Enough of my personal finances, here are my final picks for the year and the most glorious time of the year...BOWL WEEK!!!

Take the Horned Frogs, you guys

Money Game:

Wed Dec. 21st

Poinsettia Bowl 8:00 ESPN

18TCU -10.5 vs. Louisiana Tech

TCU started out a little rocky, losing to Baylor the first week in one of the games of the year, and lost to SMU in overtime.  Patterson and the bro at qb righted the ship and went into Boise and beat the Broncos after scoring a touchdown in the last seconds and the two-point conversion to win 36-35.  They will have no problem with Tech.
Loss TCU 31 Louisiana Tech 24
LTech was up 24-17 at one point and even with the score to put up TCU by 7, the spread was never in doubt and I debated to take TCU or Boise, I made the wrong pick.  TCU didn't play too bad, I just under estimated a frisky LTech squad.  They have a little something going on down there.

Football things that piss me off

I watch football.  A lot of football.  More college than pro (unless I get free Sunday Ticket/Redzone Channel, then I'm all in).  I love football.  I don't like to bitch and moan about things I love (America isn't perfect, but it's the best).  If there was no football, I'd be greatful to see a touchdown.  Then a replay break for a commercial. Then a PAT.  Then a commercial.  Then a kickoff (touchback).  Then a commercial.  Then a play and an injury.  Then a commercial with the soft Fox/Techmo Bowl injury music.  Then another play, a pass, with a roughing the passer/PI/illegal touching/defensive holding penalty.  And after tonight, I'm going to miss and countdown until opening day for college.  BUT...there are things that happen game to game that really piss me off.  If I was in charge of such things, as on xbox, these are the things that drive me nuts and what I would do instead.  Coaching for the couch is fun!

Offense:
Going for it on 4th and Punting/Kicking on 4th and 1 (inches):
     I wish more teams would call plays like they have 4 downs instead of 3.  3rd and 8, you can call two plays to get 8 yards instead of one pass for 10-15 yards and a punt.  Also, I am a big believer of "if you can't get a yard, you don't deserve to score".  Keep your offense on the field.  Also, if you punt it at when you are at the 50 and kick it into the endzone, they get the ball at the 20.  Then they have a good chance to get the ball to the 50 anyway, so why not give yourself a chance and go for it.  Most teams are not conditioned to defend against 4th down.  After 3rd down, they automatically go into the "we stopped them" mindset.

Craig James' first political Ad

If you know anything about me, or have been on the Internet this past year, you know that I do not like Craig James.  I don't didn't mind him as an announcer, but his role in the firing of Mike Leach from Texas Tech and ESPN's have-his-back-at-all-costs is utterly dumbfounding.  My favorite meme ever is #FireCraigJames and after this season, he announced he was in the running for the Senate seat of his home state, Texas, which took him off the air.  The fact he is running is laughable at best, but at least he is off my TV.  His first ad hit the airwaves this week and here it is:

The fact he wants to be the next Rick Perry is awesome.  I'm not political at all, and I hope he gets tens of votes.  As long as he is off my TV and not getting coaches fired because his son is a spoiled entitled slow receiver with the dropsies, I'm good with it.

Awful Announcing has been all over this entire thing, along with the outstanding college football community on twitter.  The day Craig James stepped down at ESPN was a victory for every college football fan.

Awful Announcing featuring Craig James

Here's a nice post about hating on James.

#VoteCraigJames

Review: Year of Betting

Shock of the world, I am in a Bowl pick 'em with all my buddies, against the spread, where all the games are assigned points.  All non-BCS games are 1 and 2 points.  "Mid-Major" bowls are 3, BCS bowls are 5 and the BCS championship is 8 points.  All games are listed, all point spreads are listed, and everyone picks against the spread.  If the spread is 3 and the teams wins by 3, you get no points.

My history is pretty bad.  I have bet on bowl games on sportsbook.com or bodog.com, and as someone who tries to watch 90% of every college game on tv, you would think I would be able to make some money on betting on college kids playing football.  During college, I would give myself a $50 limit and once it is gone, it's gone.  I started out betting on single games, then Hale explained what a parlay was and of course, when I have 3 or 7 "can't miss" games, I put them together for $25 and look at a payout of near $100.  Well, as it turns out, I normally lose half of (if not all) those games, and sometimes the other team wins or loses straight up.  Then Hale pointed out what a teaser was, and giving myself 6 points is full proof.  Again, Vegas kicked my ass.