Cornell is one of Joe Lunardi’s “first 4 out” right now. Obviously, a win over KS would be HUGE for bubble hopes. KS up 69-66 with :15 left.
Wow, Cornell is leading #1 Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse 64-63 with 49 seconds left!
Heh:
Well, almost everybody. Of the Top 15 contestants in the 5th annual Living Room Times Pick ’em Contest, only one — Brian Dupuis, tied for 9th place with an 18-14 record, 2 points behind co-leaders David K. and Doug Mataconis — picked Troy to beat Central Michigan in the GMAC Bowl, which just got underway.
Somewhat poetically, the Hartford Courant homepage features side-by-side photos of, and stories about, Connecticut’s soon-to-be-former senior senator, Chris Dodd, and the man who will almost certainly be sworn in as his replacement — and the state’s new junior senator — in almost exactly one year, Richard Blumenthal:
Blumenthal, the state attorney general for approximately the last 164 years, has held onto the title of “up-and-coming Democrat” long past its expiration date, and is now finally cashing in his decades of political capital to seek Dodd’s suddenly open seat. It’s hard to imagine any Republican defeating him in deep-blue Connecticut, even in a bad election cycle for Dems. I wonder if Rob Simmons will reconsider his now-quixotic Senate bid, and run for the open governor’s seat instead.
I’m kind of stoked: with an open-seat governor’s race and a vulnerable U.S. Senator, 2010 promises to be an exciting election in Colorado.
NHC to issue tropical storm and hurricane watches & warnings 12 hours earlier. Ray Nagin, take note. http://bit.ly/8w1bOm
Dodd, Dorgan retirements have opposite effects, moving CT from #2 to #15 on @fivethirtyeight likely party-switch list, and ND from #14 to #1
PROBLEM: Boise State wants to move its game vs. Virginia Tech at FedEx Field in D.C. to Labor Day, for increased national exposure, but it is currently scheduled to play Toledo five days later in Boise. Chris Petersen can ask his former boss, Dan Hawkins, about what can happen to teams that play Toledo on five days’ rest.
PROBLEM: If Boise State moves its Virginia Tech game to opening weekend, the “Oregon Factor” becomes an obstacle to the Broncos’ BCS title hopes — the game would be so early that its impact could fade, voters could rationalize it away, etc.
PROBLEM: A single, early-season win over VaTech may not be enough to outweigh the albatross known as Boise’s WAC schedule, particularly given that Boise’s other “name” opponent next year, Oregon State, lost to Oregon in this year’s Civil War (losing out on a Rose Bowl berth) and subsequently laid an egg in the Las Vegas Bowl, thus severely depressing its preseason ranking next year. As a result, a Boise win over the Beavers won’t really carry much BCS-title-contention heft as it might have. Boise really needs not just an early-season boost (i.e., beating VaTech), but a late-season clincher as well — and the WAC is unlikely to provide that.
PROBLEM: Big Ten teams finish their seasons on November 27 next year, which is a week later than in prior years, but they still don’t play on Championship Saturday, December 4, so any title contenders from the Big Ten are likely to be overshadowed by the SEC and Big 12 title games, as they always freakin’ are. Joe Paterno, in particular, constantly complains about this.
SOLUTION: Boise should move the VaTech game to Labor Day and cancel the Toledo game, paying whatever $$$ is necessary to make the Rockets go away. In place of the Toledo game, the Broncos should schedule, as a new 12th game, a December 4 date with Penn State in Happy Valley. This would give both the Broncos and the Fightin’ JoePas a Championship Saturday platform from which to make a BCS case, if they’re in contention at that point. Heck, who knows, it could be a national semifinal!
