"Even SUNY Programs Need 2 Dance" (Photo: Pressconnects.com)

Now the rest of the country knows my little school. Binghamton University won the America East Men’s Basketball Championship yesterday, securing their first NCAA Tournament bid. Over 5,000 fans packed into the Events Center to watch the game, and the ESPN2 announcers couldn’t heap more praise onto my trusty little alma mater that could.

“I’ve covered a lot of games,” said one of the announcers. “But this has to be one of the most electric atmospheres I have ever seen for a game.”

The photos from the Press and Sun-Bulletin support the announcer’s statement. You had President DeFleur in the stands in one of the special give-away shirts, then cutting down the net at the end of the game. You had the students with signs aplenty, then storming the court after the win. Students had pictures of Tony Kornheiser in his Binghamton jersey from Friday’s Pardon the Interruption. Watching it on ESPN2, the crowd came across as so loud and buoyant that you couldn’t help but want to join them.

This game meant a lot to this school, and you couldn’t really deny them this, a conference tournament win, a place in the NCAA tournament, on their home court – a court built specifically for such a day, no less. Unlike many other America East schools, who have football or hockey, all Binghamton has is their basketball.  A few years ago, basketball was obviously made a priority by Athletics and the rest of the school, and Saturday was the result.

I get shivers at a lot of fan bases – mostly whenever Boston University wins the Beanpot – but watching yesterday’s game on ESPN2 made me shake. I believed that someday Binghamton would be a contender for a NCAA berth, but I didn’t expect it to happen so soon. This school has been waiting for this for years, and now, Bearcats have something to aspire to and believe in. They could very well get crushed by Duke on Thursday, but this year was just the beginning.  This is a program to be reckoned with for the foreseeable future.

Fun fact: If Binghamton somehow made it to the Sweet Sixteen, they’d play at the TDBanknorth Garden here in Boston. Just saying…

To kick off our series, I am reposting an oldie-but-a-goodie I wrote about Senior Day for the Binghamton University men’s basketball team in 2004. I was a senior about to head off to Boston University for graduate work, and the Bearcats’ opponent that day was the Terriers.  The original post – edited to take out the non-basketball stuff that followed the original post – is after the jump.

If you are interested in contributing a piece to the series – be it about senior days for your team or about this year’s Terrier seniors, email me at sportsgirlkat@gmail.com.

The Battle of the BUs–A Senior Day In Every Sense

Today’s men’s basketball game at the Events Center was not only the last home game of the season for the men, but also senior day. And I found it fitting that the senior day game opponent was Boston University.

For those of you who haven’t been paying attention to my away messages, profiles or who haven’t spoken with me in the past…oh, year, I am currently in love with Boston University. Sure, I applied to five graduate schools, but since I decided I was going to go to grad school, Boston University has been one of my top choices. They were the first school to accept me (the letter was waiting for me two days after my birthday in my school mailbox). They might not have the best program in Higher Education, but they have tons of opportunities for internships and assistantships (especially in new facilities management–they‘re in the process of building the “Student Village,” a huge building project for athletics, residential life and student affairs, which working with would look soooo good on a resume), and they are just such a cool school in general. I walked around there in August and just couldn’t believe how much I liked it–I didn’t want to come back to Binghamton for another year. I was tempted to finish up my credits at Binghamton in the fall and start at Boston University in January, but I was talked out of it by a lot of people, seeing that I wanted to try for Harvard and Boston College as well. But the more I think about it, the more I want to go to Boston University. But I have to wait and see what happens.

So I attended today’s game and couldn’t decide who to cheer for–my current school, who I’m becoming increasingly disenchanted with knowing that there’s so much else beyond Binghamton, or what very well may be my new school. Well, seeing that I had student tickets and didn’t feel like being beat up (which could happen, as evidenced by what occurred at last week’s Nazareth/Fisher basketball game), I put my Boston University shirt away and wore the green Binghamton hoodie and went along with the “Let‘s Go Bearcats” chants.

The Terriers (Boston University) are currently #1 in the America East conference, and this game showed why. Marsha, Jamie and I were watching the warm-ups when Marsha remarked, “They just don’t miss,“ gesturing to the Terriers’ free throwing. They don’t–they only missed once that I recall during the game. While the first half was close, with Nick Billings being the whole Binghamton team as usual (it’s not that he can play, or that the others can’t, it’s just that he’s seven feet tall), the Terriers dominated in the second half, working with leads between 10-20 points most of the time. The final score was 69-53, but if our two seniors hadn’t been inspired to get in there and make the best of their last minutes on the Events Center floor, it probably would have been more like 75-50. The Bearcats turned over the ball constantly, and their shooting was way off most of the game. They couldn’t make a free throws at all in the second half, and easy points weren’t made because they were over-shooting the net. They announced that the official attendance at the game today was 4,823 at the end of the game. However, the end of the game lacked so much hope that people began to leave in droves after the 8 minute mark. I turned to Marsha. “Official attendance, 4,823. Official attendance after the 5 minute mark: 1,000.”

It had been noted all week that the Bearcat men had never defeated the Terriers since joining the America East three years ago, and I think the pressure of trying to overcome that in the new building on senior day was a bit too much for them. There are so many expectations for this team to do well so early on in their Division 1 career, seeing that we just built them this new venue, and we moved into a conference that caused us to eliminate one of our traditional sports (wrestling). They’re growing well, but to expect them to have beat the number one team in the conference right now wasn’t really feasible.

On another note, the Events Center is a bit…small? I was disappointed somewhat, and I don’t know why. I imagined an arena…which to me congers up mental images of the Blue Cross Arena up in Rochester. This was on a much smaller scale–the BCA holds 12,000 for concerts and the Events Center, when completed, will seat 8,000. Right now a sell out for basketball in the Events Center is 4,823. The Center is pretty sterile right now, more than likely due to the fact that they’re not really done with it. I fear that it’ll become out of date quickly, but I could also see how it could be easily renovated if that did happen. I don’t know. Did I expect more? Yes. Do we need more as a mid-major D1 school with more student apathy than the Yankees have money? No. On a semi-side note, one of my biggest fears as I leave Binghamton is that the backlash from students and faculty about the alleged “overspending on athletics” is going to deter any more growth in that area–we need more athletic opportunities because unlike what most Binghamton students think, athletes do possess brains. Also, with the local community being as stubborn as it is, I think athletics is going to be the school’s only way to make its point that we are now the economic center of the Broome County area, and therefore, should be accommodated as such.

As the crowds left the Events Center this afternoon, I felt like this was the beginning of the end. It was Senior Day for the two graduating players, but it was Senior Day for me as well–watching my last Binghamton basketball game, having what could be my new school defeat my current school. The next time I’ll be in the Events Center will more than likely be 77 days from now for Commencement. Binghamton may have been where I spent the last two years, but I’m ready to move on.

As the car prepared to turn into the gym parking lot, artsy girlfriend said to us all, filled with self-importance, “I wish people wouldn’t go to the basketball games. Binghamton doesn’t need sports.”

I took the bait. “Oh, of course we do. It puts the university on the map to the general public.”

“I didn’t hear of Binghamton through sports, ” huffed artsy girlfriend.

“Well, neither did I, but we also live in New York State. What about those in other parts of the country? They don’t know Bingo from Adam.”

“Well,” she pointed to me. “I don’t want those people, people that only find out about colleges because of their basketball teams, to come to my university. They don’t contribute anything.”

Not about to tackle how, how…just plain weird that statement was, I decided to tackle the argument from another point of view. “Think about the students that get to attend Binghamton that wouldn’t be able to otherwise due to athletic scholarships. Just like we give out merit scholarships and scholarships for the arts, here’s a chance for even more students to attend school who might not have the money to.”

“Well, they shouldn’t get money for playing sports. Arts are fine, but sports just aren’t.”

Luckily for me, we had just pulled up to the gym. “Look, it’s my stop!” I thankfully announced. “See you all back in the room.”

The sports versus arts versus intellectual pursuit debate has dogged me my entire life. When you grow up the daughter of a part-time musician and science fiction writer and attend a performing and creative arts high school, but have a lifelong dream to be a sportswriter, your stances on that debate become mighty convoluted. Sure, I think the arts are undervalued in our current American society. Sure, I have studied the horror stories at big Division I football programs with students having bogus SAT scores and taking classes that don’t amount to any degree at all. Sure, I understand professors who are angry when a hockey or basketball team receives more media excitement than their important research.

But I always look at it the way my father always explained things to my sister and I. My sister was a gifted athlete and a gifted artist, but not necessarily a gifted intellectual. Academics bored her, not because she was bad at them, but because creating and moving and kicking and acting inspired her more than math and reading and the periodic table did. And, according to my father, that was okay. “There are some of us in this world who will be blessed with athletic talent,” he would nod towards Megan, then put his hand to his chest. “Just like those of us blessed with artistic talent.  And there are those of us blessed with smarts,” he would nod towards me. “And the world needs a little bit of everyone, and everyone needs exposure to people with all of these traits. So to say that our schools shouldn’t have opportunities for all of these pursuits would be wrong.”

And with that explanation always echoing in my head, I chose to attend a university fighting with its identity. What was Binghamton going to be? When I transferred there in 2002, it has just gone Division I, it had just started to build a new arena for basketball and new technology and engineering buildings, and it was starting to get the credit it was due for being an amazing research university in the social sciences. The school was so young compared to other institutions – it was founded in 1946 – and lacked distinctive spirit and points of pride.

Because of this, you had students on campus who were gung ho about the school spirit sports would bring, and those who saw the sports as ruining the good thing that had been going – this high caliber incubator of creation and research – albeit under-the-radar to most of the East Coast, let alone the country. Debates such as the one between me and artsy girlfriend happened all over campus, and eventually manifested itself into a New York Times “expose” last weekend on Binghamton.

Titled “At Binghamton, Division I Move Brings Recognition and Regret,” the Times interviewed professors angry with student-athletes missing classes for competition, and zeroed in on the criminal digressions of two members of the basketball team this season. What the article lacked to mention was that unlike some other institutions, the school quickly and swiftly continues to take action against student-athletes who miss class, miss assignments or act out of line.  But the damage was done – there were some truths to the article, and the article did concrete damage to a university who has received very little bad press over its 63 years of existence.

Finally, the intellectual argument had its ammunition to win the never-ending debate. The New York Times, the newspaper for true intellectuals, had given that side its giant rocket to finally muffle those who saw the need for athletics on the campus. Athletics was ruining the university, not giving it an identity or spirit.

And then, mere days later, a standing-room only Events Center witnessed the troubled and emotional-roller-coaster riding men’s basketball team win their first America East regular season championship in their six year history in the conference. (They share the regular season title with the University of Vermont Catamounts.) This secured the school its first men’s basketball NIT bid ever.
(Binghamton fans storm the court Thursday evening to celebrate a Bearcat regular season championship.)

Those 5,500 or so members of the University community jumping onto the court after the final buzzer had their say, just days after the Times decided to blast the school and it’s decision to go Division I. These attendees see the need for athletics at the institution.  – to unite.  On Thursday night, for one of the first times ever, Binghamton University was united. After years of searching for its idenity and spirit, over 5,000 students found it – at a basketball game. The debate will continue,  in the halls, in classrooms, in offices and in cars coming back from a Denny’s brunch on the Parkway, but for one night, sports showed that they had a place on the campus.

Anyone who works with me knows that I am a NCAA Compliance geek. I don’t know exactly how my interest in these daunting regulations began, but I suspect it might have began with being exposed to housing regulations as they related to the new residence hall where I worked and lived my senior year.

Our building – brand new – appealed to basketball players because it served as break housing and had the highest ceilings on campus (always important when you are well over 6 feet tall.) However, NCAA Division I regulations restrict the number of student-athletes that can live in a single residence in rule 16.5 Housing and Rules:

“During the academic year, the institution may not house student-athletes in athletic dormitories or athletics blocks within institutional or privately owned dormitories or apartment buildings (when the institution arranges for the housing) on those day when institutional dormitories are open to the general student body.”

Athletic blocks and athletic dormitories are defined as units of residence (be they residences or floors) where at least fifty percent of the residents are student-athletes. Therefore, it could be very difficult to allow your student-athletes to participate in any lottery-based housing system – random assignments of selection numbers based on class year and/or credits earned – without having to go back into the system after housing selection and reassign some of your athletes just to be safe from a violation. Long story short – the entire men’s basketball team could not reside in my residence hall, despite the fact that it had some of the only showers on campus they could fit in without having to duck their head (no lie.)

Because of my compliance geekdom, I present to you a new reoccurring feature on my blog (aka, another excuse for me try to post more often): “Better Know a Compliance Rule.” (I hope I don’t get sued by Stephen Corbert.) Today’s Random Compliance Rule of the Day was discovered when I was looking for NCAA Compliance rules involving non-recruited walk-ons. Last week, all of Boston University was wrapped up in the aftermath of the suspension of four men’s hockey players for a undisclosed incident. The suspension, combined with two key injuries, left the team with the minimum of players to dress for their weekend games. It just happens that our unrecognized club ice hockey team just won the Club Hockey Beanpot, meaning we have a whole vat of not-too-shabby hockey players hanging out in our backyard. This led to various co-workers of mine asking, “Well, if we’re short handed and need players to dress, why doesn’t Jack Parker (coach of the Terriers) grab some of them?”

Now, mind you, my office is not Athletics and has no say in who Parker dresses for a game or accepts as a walk-on. But it got me intrigued as to the NCAA regulations involving unrecruited walk-ons, so I broke out the office copy of the 2007 NCAA Division I Manual (which I ordered, of course, after selfishly convincing my office that it would be a great use of $15.00) to quickly quench my curiosity. While I was looking, I found the following rule:

12. 5.4.1 Laundry Labels – If an institution’s uniform or any item of apparel worn by a student-athlete in competition contains washing instructions on the outside of the apparel on a patch that also includes the manufacturer’s or distributor’s logo or trademark, the entire patch must be contained within a four-sided geometrical figure (rectangle, square, parallelogram) that does not to exceed 2 1/4 square inches.

This rule refers to a patch often found on NFL replica jerseys – a rectangular patch on the outside of the jersey near the bottom hem that states the manufacturer and the size of the garment. I always found those labels tacky and unneeded for two reasons – one, maybe I’m being totally girly with this, but the whole world does not need to know what size I’m wearing, and two, it is completely just another way to get a company’s logo on the jersey. I understand the NCAA’s concern regarding the use of a corporate logo – they regulate the heck out of them – but what got me about this rule was the statement of the four-sided geometrical figure, and the examples that follow. Really, we had to explain what a four-sided geometrical figure is? And really, a parallelogram? That’s a phrase that is usually left to standardized test writers. I would love to see a laundry label that is in an awkwardly slanted four-sided shape with sides parallel to each other. Where’s the love for the triangles, octagons, and pentagons? Why does there need to be a qualifier on the number of sides? As long as the shape is of a certain area, I think you could allow for it to be any shape. My last beef with this rule is that most Division I teams are serviced by equipment managers who are charged with laundering jerseys – do they really need instructions? I imagine they know what they’re doing, for it is their job to wash these uniforms time and time again – doesn’t that make the purpose of the laundry label on a Division I athlete’s jersey unnecessary? Therefore, should these labels just be outlawed entirely by the NCAA?

As I explained to my father recently, NCAA regulations are very much like the law – highly detailed but open to interpretation. Most of the regulations boil down to determining when differential treatment occurs between a student-athlete and a non-student-athlete attending the same institution. However, like real lawyers, you can argue your way out of or into anything – in a extremely basic example that would rarely if ever occur, if a student-athlete receives several articles of clothing beyond the regulations on apparel, a compliance officer could argue that a non-student athlete in the span of an academic year had a similar opportunity to obtain an equal or greater amount of complimentary apparel, as long as they had the data to prove it. In an example from my everyday life, administrators are allowed to host student-athletes to a dinner as long as he or she offers the same opportunity to non-student athletes (in fact, in our practice, non-student athletes get the opportunity to do this than student athletes.) There are then additional issues involved with having student-athletes over to dinner (for example, there are stipulations on the meal taking place in an administrator’s house and not a restaurant) – but because non student-athletes get the opportunity for such a meal to a same, if not greater, amount, we have covered the most basic and overarching compliance rule. When we get into issues of amateurism in NCAA regulations, my initial generalization is non-applicable, if not completely turned on its head. A non-student athlete could be an artistic performer, could go out and obtain representation, sign a contract to perform and receive compensation, and still be eligible to perform in the college’s theatre troupe or choir. If a student-athlete does the same, they are rendered ineligible to compete. The greater societal good of amateurism regulations is a topic for another day, but consideration of amateurism on a logical basis absent of American society’s emphasis on sports over artistic talent, those regulations seem to be of an opposite logic of other NCAA rules.

I could be completely off on my study of the overarching themes of NCAA regulations – in all reality, I’m an event planner and educator, not a director of compliance – and if I am, please let me know. I always do run through any work-related compliance questions with my school’s Athletics department because I recognize that I don’t know everything about compliance. But I find the subject of compliance fascinating – but I promise that next time I share an amusing compliance rule, I won’t get all professor-y on you all.

********
In other news, I am still trying to finish the re-cap of my brief foray into sports management – working the Boston University – Cornell University men’s hockey game at Madison Square Garden. I hope to finish it by the end of the week, so be on the lookout for it!

And, I heart Trent Edwards. That is all. (Sorry, J.P.)

Now in an effort not to appear selfish or full of myself, I usually omit holiday #2. This means that tomorrow is my second (but really third) favourite holiday of the calendar year.

So…Happy Tournament Eve!

I have just completed an all time high five brackets. I usually do two, some years three. This year, in order to see what picks method I should use in the future, I did two sets of brackets at both Yahoo and ESPN. One bracket in each set is a regular bracket based on my passable knowledge of men’s college basketball (passable for everything but the America East, which I know a little more about.) The other bracket in each set is entitled “Kat’s Wishful Bracket,” which are brackets where I have Niagara going to the Elite Eight, solely for the reasoning that they are representin’ Western New York. These could also be classified as “Girly Brackets.” I chose BYU because it’s Steve Young’s alma mater, Albany because they’re from America East, George Washington because my old roommate went there…so on and so on.

Not being as into men’s basketball as other sports, in years past I’ve found that some of my girly choices end up being the better choices than the well-informed ones. I, being a super geek, have decided to see what happens if I completely girly-choose one whole bracket and rely on actual factual basketball knowledge for the other.

Over the next few days, I will update you as to how each bracket is doing, along with the status of my fifth bracket, my Facebook bracket, which is a serious bracket because I’m up against some serious competition (aka, people I have to face on a daily basis.) This may not be at the same level of seriousness as the MCFFLOAT of a few years back (if you are unfamiliar with the MCFFLOAT, I suggest reading my entries from 2004–it’s fun reading), but still, the stakes are high. I mean, I’m a Sports Girl, and bracket picking is one of those things we Sports Girls have to succeed at in order to further prove ourselves as real sports fans. It’s one tangible we have to cement our actual sports fandom.

But then again, depending on how my bracket experiment turns out, it may turn out not to be based on ability or any level of fandom at all.

With that all said, I wish you luck in your brackets and luck in strategizing when exactly to take your lunch hour tomorrow so that you can catch the best part of any given game!

I had only gone to one sporting event in my life where the number of fans for the opposing team had come close to the fans for the home team. That would be Niners-Bills in October of 1998 (aka the closest I’ve ever had to a major religious experience).

Well, then I went to the Canisius-Boston University men’s basketball game this afternoon, where I found myself in the midst of all of the Canisius alumni in New England.

I went primarily to see my boss–aka, Boston University’s Anthem Lady–sing the National Anthem. I had never seen her sing, and I’ve worked for her since the beginning of June, which wouldn’t be a big deal except that she is the Anthem Lady. I don’t know how else to put it, but she’s pretty much the most famous person I’ve ever known. I can pretty much guarantee that if you’ve lived in Boston for any length of time and are a sports fan, you know who she is. Name a sporting event, and she’s sang at it. So I had to rectify this situation and finally go see her sing. And I figured, while I’m at it, to finally take in a Boston University basketball game in Boston, as opposed to the two I had taken in over the years in Binghamton.

I will admit, I copped out five minutes into the second half due to Anthem Lady’s offer of a ride home (yes, I may be queen of public transportation, but I never turn down a ride home–she had to leave early to pick up her kids). But from what I did see, Boston has a rather deep team. Unlike the team Binghamton fielded while I was in attendance, Boston has no one overwhelmingly good player–the campus and surrounding media make it out to be Chaz Carr, but from my experience, he’s not leaps and bounds better than everyone else, just slightly better at getting the ball, and he doesn’t produce as much as he’s made out to when he does get it. Compare that to Binghamton, where we had mediocre players–hard working, don’t get me wrong, but mediocre–and then one substantially overhyped media “superstar” who we’d put in the game to take “easy” free throws that he’d never make. (But really, I love the Alaskian. He made getting lunch in the Union that much more hysterical for us 5’1 and unders who had the pleasure to stand next to him in line.)

However, Canisius took the first half in a performance that was rather unfitting of a 1-6 team. I didn’t know their record before hand, and was astonished after I got home and learned it was 1-6. They sure didn’t play like it in the first half. They’re tough and excellent at blocking shots–they just get in the way like no team I have seen previously. But I think they may get easily intimidated. Once BU went up by 4 or so, they retreated and were too busy thinking through their defense instead of executing it. It wouldn’t of been too hard to defend–every play in the latter first half and the part of the second that I saw was that had Carr dribble outside, pass to the coach’s son or another similar looking guy whose name I’m not sure of, who then would dribble, Carr would move inside, and the ball would then be passed to either Carr or Peterkin, who would shoot it in for 2 or muscle to the basket for 1. All Canisius had to do was defend against Peterkin, and they could of slowed BU down, but I feel they didn’t have a clue Peterkin could be a threat (all of the PERD people I sat with had no idea who he was–I found out this morning that he’s a transfer from Notre Dame).

However, despite the Griffins initial scoring burst and their eventual bust on defense, what was most surprising was how many Canisius alumni live in Boston. Tons of alumni were there, and if they didn’t outnumber the BU fans, they came really close. Canisius is in Buffalo, and I guess this further supports my theory that if a Western New Yorker is going to drudge away to a big city, they tend to go to Boston. This is because Western New York is just a grayer, boring, more spread out Boston. Think about it. Bills fans are just like Red Sox fans, we all love our baseball, we think nothing of winter weather, we have strange lingo that no one else in the country uses (bubblers? pop? white hots? frappes?), and we have weird accents (or at least everyone tells me Western New Yorkers do.)

The Terriers were securely in the lead 34-24 when I left, and ended up winning 62-45. Not an amazingly dominant performance by the Terriers, but they’re still at the top of the America East (don’t ask Binghamton’s record–it’s depressing). Surprisingly, Tyler Coppenrath led Vermont are struggling at .500 right now, which should make upcoming conference play very interesting indeed.

***

I’m writing this entry on an Amtrak train in business class. Yes, I kind of wish I had an eggnog latte so I could feel even more Peter-King-ish.

I know you’re saying, “But Kat–you were supposed to fly home for the holidays. What happened?”

I bought the ticket despite my horrendous fear of flying–over my childhood I backed out of two trips to Disney World because it meant I’d have to fly–but freaked out yesterday when I realized that when I had the panic attack I was sure to have when I got in the tunnel and as the plane took off, I would have no one I knew around to calm me down. I’m lucky enough not to usually suffer from panic attacks. I’m a pretty calm and collected person–except when I’m on a plane. Now, five years ago I had a whole group of people I knew with me, and they were all aware of my fear and were able to combat the ensuing attack pretty quickly. But this was going to be different. I would be between two strangers who’d be calling for the stewardess frantically. I couldn’t do that. Plus my flight wasn’t a straight shot–it was Boston to Baltimore, Baltimore to Rochester–so it meant I’d have to go through the takeoff and landing twice, and I didn’t think I could do it. So I woke up at 4:45am from a really restless night of sleep, and canceled my ticket. Luckily, some train tickets had opened up over the past few days–in business class of course, because it’s not like they could make it cheap or anything–so I got those.

And here I am. The chicken of all chickens, rather enjoying my time on the train. Of course, we’re only close to hour 3, meaning I have…seven more hours ahead of me. Good gosh.

****

Remember my last post? The Cinderella fantasy football season of me? Well, this past weekend was the equivalent of Cinderella’s left behind glass slipper being picked up by the Prince and pounded into shreds. Then Cinderella goes back to her room to find out that her other glass slipper is OUT WITH A FRACTURED FIBULA for the REST OF THE SEASON.

Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system…

The best I can finish now is 3rd place in both leagues. And true, the worst I can do is 4th. But still! I had my hopes up! I’ve been a football maniac since age eleven. To have a disappointing finish to a fantasy football season at age 22 (almost 23) is saddening. It’s depressing. I’ve been following football now for half my life! Horribly horribly depressing.

But I should stop complaining. Third is good. Third sets me up well to build on next year. That is if anyone will have me back in their leagues.

***

So I finished 10-6 last week. 10-6. After a 13-3 week. Man, last weekend was just not good football wise for me. Well, except that I got to see the Bills kick the tail out of the Bengals (get it–tail, tigers? Laugh at me instead of with me if you must, as long as you laugh at that.) That’s a rarity in good ol’ Boston, to see a Bills game that doesn’t involve the Pats. On a Pats note (and yes, we’re ignoring that Tom Brady had a really bad game on Monday night solely because he’s wicked hot even when he’s sad), I did my first Pats “we” interchange this week. I said “we” when speaking about the Pats. “We” used to be reserved for the Bills, formerly reserved for the Niners when they were led by our favourite number 8 there. I think that means I’m a real Bostonian now. (The Red Sox pronoun replacement happened a while back, but that’s because I’d been a Red Sox fan for a little bit already.)

So before either a) my computer overheats because it’s on my lap and not on a table or b) the battery dies, let me do my picks. These will be minus the Packers-Vikings game, which starts in five minutes and to which I’ll be sadly oblivious to while I sit here on this internet connection-less train.

Kansas City over Oakland–As my fantasy football confidant/student worker Chris would say, Kansas City has been “lights out” lately.

Tennessee over Denver–Go for broke when no money is on the line is what I say, so here’s this upset special. I don’t know if ya’ll realize this, but Shanhan has been with the Broncos almost a decade…and he’s proven that the West Coast offense doesn’t work for everybody. He lucked out in the 90s with his string of quarterback luck (Young followed by Elway–he got three Super Bowl rings out of those two). But I think it might be time for him to go.

Pittsburgh over Baltimore–I used to like Rothlisberger because a) he’s my age and b) he too has an unpronounceable and unspellable last name. However, this whole winning thing is getting old quick for this Pats and Bills fan. Darn it, just lose for once!

Detroit over Chicago

Giants over Cincinnati

San Diego over Indy–It’ll be close though. Come on, give the Chargers some credit.

Jacksonville over Houston–Unfortunately.

Carolina over Tampa Bay

Atlanta over New Orleans–There is more than Vick on this team. They can win against a horribly weirdo Saints team without him.

Pats over Jets–I wish this game was on Saturday so I could laugh at my Jets and Yankees loving uncle. Hahahahaha. I should of gotten him a choker for Christmas.

Washington over Dallas

Seattle over Arizona–Homgren will suit up and go out there himself if he has to.

Miami over Cleveland–I love Wes Welker. Hate the Dolphins, but think the world of Wes Welker, with his cute little name and Belichick-like multi-purposes.

Philly over St. Louis–Mark Bulger has dropped just that much further on the hottest QBs list.

And of course, the Hailey’s Comet of football matchups (okay, it happens a little more frequently than that, but it’s always a special day when it comes around), Buffalo over San Francisco. I wish this would end up a little bit more of a contest, but it won’t. But what’s most important is that I’ll be in Rochester on Sunday, which means this will be on TV for me!

Happy Holidays everyone!