Complaint of the Week: So This is the New Year and I Don’t Feel Any Better

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Complaint of the Week: So This is the New Year and I Don’t Feel Any Better

 

It should be noted that I will not hesitate to steal song lyrics from anyone (ANYONE), even Death Cab for Cutie, if it suits my whims. I. Will. Not. Hesitate.

 

Moving on…

 

So, 2010 started a mere eight days ago and I briefly contemplated breaking my streak of not making resolutions (to misquote Hobbes, “Live and don’t learn, that’s me!”) to make a few. Then I decided that change is difficult and America, despite voting Obama into power, has recently come down firmly against it. Who am I to dispute the will of the masses?

 

So instead of making them, I thought I’d just share some of the ones I might have made, and why they never would have worked.

 

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Boise State finishes #4 in both polls

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The final AP and coaches polls are out, and Boise State is ranked #4 in both, behind #1 Alabama, #2 Texas and #3 Florida.

It was quite close for the #2-4 spots: 1399 to 1370 to 1366 in the AP poll; 1360 to 1323 to 1312 in the coaches poll. Joe Lieberman circa 2004 might call it “a three-way split decision for second place.” 🙂

(But seriously: if you look at the vote totals for #1 Alabama and #5 Ohio State, you’ll see there’s a big gap both above and below the #2-3-4 trio. In the AP, it’s 1500-1399-1370-1366-1224. In the coaches, it’s 1450-1360-1323-1312-1190.)

I always expected that Boise would finish just barely behind Florida, if Alabama won the title. But I originally thought Texas would fall to a clear #4. And I still think they would have, if they’d lost to Alabama in a more “normal” game. But the McCoy injury changed everything, as I predicted shortly after it happened in the liveblog last night. Clearly, quite a few voters felt they couldn’t demote Texas below the #2 spot on the basis of a close, McCoy-less defeat at the hands of the #1 team. And frankly, as much as I want to stick up for the shafted undefeated mid-major, that’s a perfectly defensible position.

Indeed, in all honesty, it’s hard for me to get too outraged about Boise being #4 — by a very slim margin — behind two one-loss teams whose only loss was to the #1 team in the country. I think you could make a case for the Longhorns, Gators or Broncos at #2. And it’s clear from the closeness of the voting that they all got a good mixture of second-place, third-place and fourth-place votes. (Alabama was a unanimous #1, though.) Personally, I would have ranked Boise second, but I can understand why others didn’t. Now, anyone who ranked them below #4 is an idiot. But only two AP voters did that (although, maddeningly, those two idiot voters made the difference between Boise being ranked #4 and being tied for #3 with Florida).

The big question now is where Boise will be ranked in the preseason polls next season, since their initial ranking will serve as their jumping-off point for a potential run at the BCS title. They return all but one of their starters from a team that’s ranked #4 (almost #3) in the nation, so if they start next year ranked anywhere below where they finished this year, it’ll be pure anti-mid-major bias at work. By rights, this ought to be a team competing seriously for #1 in the preseason polls, not begging for Top 5 scraps. In reality, I expect a ranking in the #3-5 range, probably higher in the AP poll and lower in the coaches’ poll. But I think those who expect Boise to be shafted with a #6-10 or even #11-15 range ranking are living in the past. The voters nowadays are fairer than ever before, and the vast majority of them respect Boise now, if grudgingly in some cases. The Broncos won’t be Top 2, but they will be Top 5. (And TCU will be Top 10, or Top 12 at worst.)

(FWIW, the Idaho Statesman reports that “AP voters we polled this week indicated they would vote the Broncos near the top of their preseason ballots for 2010.” Here are some quotes from voters. And the NYT‘s Pete Thamel, for one, has them #2 in his “Way-Too-Early Top 10 for 2010.”)

Anyway, below the Top 4, you’ve got Ohio State at #5, TCU #6, Iowa #7, then Cincinnati and Penn State (#8 and #9 in the AP, reversed in the coaches), and Virginia Tech rounding out the Top 10 in both polls. The Hokies, of course, are Boise State’s marquee opponent next year — the Broncos play VaTech in Washington, D.C. on either Labor Day or October 2. And Oregon State, Boise’s other BCS-conference opponent next season, is second in both polls’ “others receiving votes” list, making them effectively #27 in the country. With the Rodgers brothers returning, they should be ranked in the Top 25 preseason, methinks. And VaTech should certainly be Top 10.

Oh, and USC? They finished a relatively dismal season ranked #22 in the AP poll and #20 in the coaches’ poll.

Complaint of the Week: Now Joining the Already Cluttered Blogging Landscape: Tim Stevens?

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Hello and welcome. My name is Tim Stevens and I’ll be your host through this and (hopefully) many other editions of Complaint of the Week. This is what I call my intro column. No real content, just me subtly begging you to keep reading me. Tomorrow (or possibly later today)…that’s when the real content arrives. But please, please, please don’t leave yet.

So the first thing you need to know is that “Complaint of the Week” is not entirely accurate. It is a callback to an email column I did while I was in high school. That one literally was a complaint a week (That’s right, I used to email a column out on a weekly basis. “Why?” you might ask. Because that’s what awesome people did in their mid to late teens in the 90’s.) These days, however, I have matured a bit and feel no need to hate everything. Just most things…

Anyway, this will be more like what I did in college in the Voice and after college, briefly, for one of good master Brendan’s earlier websites. Random musing on whatever strikes my fancy. There will be complaining, to be sure, but the title is mostly nostalgia.

As for the “of the Week” thing, well…I will try damn hard, I promise you that. Whether or not I can keep it up is a different matter entirely. For now though, let’s all pretend that I know what I am doing and that deadlines will not be a problem.

The last, most important question is: why do I care about this guy’s musings? You probably don’t, at least not yet. But hey, maybe you will. You did not always know that [insert favorite food here] was your favorite food, but then one day, you tried it. Try this…maybe I’ll be the written equivalent of [insert favorite food again]. Or, at the least, [insert other food that is enjoyable but not to nearly the same extent]. Besides Brendan thinks enough of me to given me this space, right? And you like Brendan, right? So you wouldn’t want to make him cry but not reading his friend’s column, would you? Of course you wouldn’t! You’re not some kind of jerk, after all.

Anyway, that’s me, that’s Complaint of the Week. Before you go, though, I have always been taught that a photo of you really helps the audience connect with you in a deeper way. So…here you go:

My, that is a dapper gent, isnt it?

My, that is a dapper gent, isn't it?

Enjoy that eye candy.

And, yes, before you ask, I am wearing a tux and standing in a church. Because that’s the essence of Tim Stevens. I own twelve suits, six of them are tuxes (tuxes would fall under the suit category of clothing, yes?), I spend at least 7 hours every day standing, arms akimbo, inside churches. Often while wearing a tux. Like I am here. Because, again, that’s just who I am.