Thinking about...stuff

Vikings thought for today: I can’t argue with Peyton Manning as the league MVP, but I expect to see Adrian Peterson win one or two before his career ends. I thought he was a serious candidate to win until his late season fumbling problem, because you can make a legitimate argument that no player is more valuable to the Vikings than Peterson is to the Vikings. I think Pat Williams will play, but Philadelphia never runs the ball, anyway. Still, his presence is needed on that defensive line, as he takes up 14 blockers per play, giving Jared Allen and Kevin Williams an opportunity to have a big day against an effective, but just-a-step-slower Donovan McNabb.

If I was Zygi WIlf, I’d be on the phone to any potential Southern California buyer asking how much. I mean really, fans are so disenchanted with a…division…title…that they don’t want to come watch the first home playoff game since 2000? Add that to the comments of state senator Larry Pogemiller, and the Vikings are pretty much as good as gone. Seriously, when the fan base bitches about a head coach that just won the division title and state politicians literally laughs the Vikings out of the building when a new stadium is brought up, do you really think that the Vikings will be in Minnesota much longer? The NFL would love to put a marquee player like Adrian Peterson in a media market like Los Angeles, and thanks to a fickle fan base and an ignorant legislative body, the NFL will get their wish.

Ohio State thought for today: The Ohio State fan in me wants to see Beanie Wells wearing the Scarlet and gray next year, but a running back can only absorb so many hits before he ends up like Earl Campbell. I appreciate his passion and his determination to leave Columbus with a lasting legacy, but I can’t fault him if he bolts for NFL riches.

I still don’t get how a formation with both Todd Boeckman and Terrelle Pryor in it will be beneficial. Are you going to have them both line up in the backfield? Are you going to line Boeckman up wide and throw him the ball? Really? Are you going to throw him a screen and then send Pryor deep? Run an option with Boeckman and Pryor? I’m not Jim Bollman or Jim Tressel, but I just don’t see the upside here. I’d spend more time coming up with a way to shut down Colt McCoy, but we’ll see come Monday.

The country may have entered an economic downturn earlier year, but the Big 10 has been in a down cycle since January of 2007. Michigan laid an egg against USC in the Rose Bowl that year, OSU got killed by Florida, Michigan then got beat by Appalachian St. in the 2007 season opener, and then OSU got killed…again…but by LSU this time. I submit that if OSU beats Texas Monday, Ohio State gets a large measure of redemption, and the Big 10 will start the road to recovery. But for the conference to fully recover, they need to do better than 2-5 in bowls (assuming OSU wins), and marquee teams need to at least show up against out of conference marquee opponents.

St. Louis Cardinals thought for today: I’ve been patient, I really have. I didn’t have a problem with not spending insane money on the latest and greatest free agent. I think it’s a great idea to rebuild the farm system and get some young, fresh talent. But the terms “low hanging fruit” and “keeping the powder dry” have become synonymous with another word: “cheap”. The Cardinals have now finished in second place for another affordable free agent in Brian Fuentes, and have now decided that Adam Kennedy is the answer at second base as opposed to Aaron Miles or Javier Lopez. I’m aware that Miles isn’t going to go to the Hall of Fame, or even to the Hall of Pretty Good. It’s not the fact that they didn’t sign Miles, who’s value I think is over-rated in the eyes of many Cardinal fans; it’s the fact that they haven’t signed…anyone. I give John Mozeliak credit where it’s due; trading Scott Rolen for Troy Glaus was a phenomenal trade, and giving Kyle Lohse an extension was a smart move. But the Cardinals are over-valuing talent on the farm at the expense of making the club better, and Miles would have been good insurance if Adam Kennedy ends up playing more like Adam Carolla. I get the importance of a good farm system, but at what point does this club become the St. Louis Twins? They’re not there yet, because they have a good track record of keeping marquee (not Marquis) players, but once guys like Chris Carpenter, Rick Ankiel, Yadier Molina, and…gulp…Albert Pujols are gone, the record seems to indicate that the Cardinals will look from within to replace these players, and not pursue quality from the free agent pool.

But man, what progress on Ballpark Village!!

Big 10 thought for today: Yesterday I wrote that to fix the Big 10, you need to add a team, split into divisions, and have a conference championship game. Let me caveat that by saying that works only if every major conference does that, and this becomes the foundation for a college football playoff. If you go that route, the bowls must be completely eliminated. Quarter and semi-final games are played at the higher ranked teams home stadium, with the Championship game played at a neutral site, just like they do in the NFL…and in the FCS. The only potential problem with that is the ranking of the teams. Give it to sportswriters and/or coaches and I think there would be a natural bias towards their region or conference. I can’t honestly say if that exists in the FCS or not, because I frankly don’t care what happens in the FCS. But I haven’t heard a lot of complaining about it, so it must not be too problematic. If you try to incorporate the current BCS bowls as a semi-final and championship game location, you’re asking fans to travel across the country on consecutive weeks, or at best in two weeks, to watch their team play. That’s asking a lot in robust economic times; in an economy like this, it just isn’t feasible for 95% of us. If the NCAA isn’t going to go that route, then just eliminate the damn BCS and go back to the way it used to be, and cut the number of bowls down to about 20 or so. Maybe I’m just waxing nostalgic, but I miss the gluttony of football on New Year’s Day, and I think it stinks that all the major bowl games have been rendered essentially irrelevant. And I might do better than 9-18 on my office bowl pick ‘em.

And bring back the Bluebonnet Bowl!!

But a playoff isn’t going to happen anytime soon. There is too much money in the bowl system for the schools and conferences involved to eliminate them, and that money helps to fund not only football, but other sports that aren’t high revenue producers. A playoff that eliminates the bowls will produce a large amount of money, but only for a select few schools. Secondly, I thought part of the growing disparity between the Big 10 and the rest of the country would be solved by a conference championship, but that’s only part of the problem.

Yesterday, Kirk Herbstreit brought up a great point about the speed disparity between USC and Penn State (and the SEC and the Big 10, for that matter). It’s not the speed at the skill positions, it’s the speed on the interior line and linebacker that is just killing the Big 10. And in the groupthink that is the Big 10, you first play to win the Big 10 first, not the national championship. So do you go and start recruiting a team to play with the USC’s of the world, but might not be physically imposing enough to withstand a Big 10 schedule? Because I submit that if you put Florida or USC up in our climate in October and November and make them play as physically as the Big 10 plays week in and week out, they wouldn’t be as effective as they are on a regular basis.

Thanks for reading, all three of you.