Top 5 Sports Days of the Year

5. New Year's Day
New Year's Day itself is typically pretty uneventful. The only thing that makes the day worthwhile is the slew of college football bowl games that usually accompanies it. I say "usually" because some genius decided to put only three games on New Year's this year, while putting five games on January 2nd. I realize the 2nd is a Saturday, but having only three games on New Year's Day is a downright travesty. Another great choice by the guys who run college football.

4. NFL Draft
I might be alone on this one, but the NFL draft is easily the most exciting non-actual sporting event of the year. It's a day full of football, surprising picks, stupid picks, and trading down by the Eagles. As a bonus, watching guys who have just been drafted trying to do interviews is always great unintentional comedy.

3. Super Bowl
Most people would put Super Bowl Sunday at number one. Super Bowl Sunday is great, no doubt. However, the hype almost always surpasses the actual game. Sure we've been very lucky the last two years and have been treated to two of the greatest Super Bowls of all-time. Normally though, unless your team is playing in it (and I'm an Eagles fan), Super Bowl Sunday is a tad bit overrated.

2. Opening Day of Baseball
It's the unofficial start of Spring. I can't remember an Opening Day in which the weather hasn't been perfect, and you're just dying to get out of class/work and go to your team's first game. In a sport severely lacking in parity, Opening Day is great because for at least one game, every team has hope. And for one game, you get every team's ace on the mound.

1. First Day of March Madness
This will always be my personal favorite. Before college, having to get through the school day knowing there were games going on was torture. I would try to find the games on the ancient TVs that each classroom had behind the teacher's back, but no luck. When I finally got home or in the car to listen to the radio, there was always at least one upset or great game going on. And that's only the day games, there are still plenty of games at night. Then the whole thing happens all over again the next day. If every day could be the first day of March Madness, life would be perfect.

By popular demand: 64 team football playoffs

Since the 12 team playoff was no fun (Florida won), the 64 team bracket is back by popular demand:

Kevo NCAA Football Tournament (click on Championship Bracket)

Don't ask how long that took.

First round games are in the higher seed's home field, and then the bowl sites for the following rounds.

If you have as much free time as I do, feel free to fill out a bracket and let me know who you think would win (maybe even bracket competition?). Click Predict It on the top if you want to.

Roy Halladay + Bowl Picks

In case you've been dead for the last week, the Phillies have made a couple trades involving pitchers.. Roy Halladay is now in Philadelphia and Cliff Lee is not. I think if I read another Halladay/Holiday pun, I'm going to puke. Needless to say, this has been the epicenter of conversation among Philadelphia sports for the last several days. If I had to gauge what the ratio of positive to negative feedback from fans/media, it would probably be 20% positive and 80% negative. Being the reasonable and keen observer that I am, I'll look at it from both sides.

POSITIVES
Roy Halladay is a better pitcher than Cliff Lee. I know Lee was great for the Phillies for the short time he was here. I know he won a Cy Young award more recently than Halladay. But here's the ultimate kicker: Roy Halladay is going to the Hall of Fame, Cliff Lee, in all likelihood, is not. Roy Halladay career: 3.43 ERA, 148 wins, and an astounding (in this age of baseball) 49 complete games. Cliff Lee career: 3.97 ERA, 97 wins, 13 complete games. Cliff Lee is a great pitcher, no doubt about that, but Halladay will go down as one of the top 20 pitchers of all-time when all is said and done, possibly even higher than that. Halladay is who the Phillies wanted all along last year. They just didn't want to pay his price tag, so they settled for Lee. Bottom line, Halladay is an upgrade over Lee.

Cliff Lee would not have been a Philadelphia Phillie after this season. I know he came out and said he wanted to finish his career in Philadelphia. I'm sure he wanted to, but the Phillies wouldn't have been able to afford his asking price. He made it well known that he wanted Johan Santana type of money. With Ryan Howard's contract on the horizon, the Phillies have to save money wherever they can. They got Halladay to sign for 3 more years after this season for a cheaper price than Lee. The Phillies are not the Yankees for Red Sox. They just can't spend money however they please. Halladay over Lee is a fiscally smart choice.

Halladay is a better fit for the Phillies than Lee. He's a ground ball pitcher in a park where a seemingly routine fly ball can turn into a homer very fast. He's also a righty in a rotation that would have been four lefties and one righty if Lee had stayed. And let's not forget what the Phillies Achillies' Heel was last season: the bullpen. Halladay is a guaranteed 7 innings every time he goes out, if not more. He's going to help out the bullpen drastically.

NEGATIVES
Yes, the team could have had both Halladay and Lee this season. It would have stretched their payroll to their absolute maximum, but they could've done it. The opening day rotation of Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Happ, and Blanton would have been the best the in the league, no contest. They would have easily been everyone's World Series favorites and 100 wins would have been a very real possibility.

There's also the fact that the Phillies could have made this trade for Halladay last season, along with getting Lee. Dealing in what-ifs is a tricky business, but what if the Phillies had Halladay to pitch in that World Series? Would we be celebrating back-to-back titles right now? Would I have to deal with seeing Yankees World Series merchandise everytime I go to Modell's in New Jersey?

Besides the payroll factor, GM Ruben Amaro didn't want the Phillies' minor league system to be depleted of talent, which is why he got three of the Mariners top prospects. I understand the need to have talented players in the minors, because the team does have a future to worry about. But, as fans, would you rather:
a) Have three straight World Series titles, go down as one of the greatest teams of all-time, and be absolutely terrible for 10 straight season after that
OR
b) Win one World Series, fall short the next year, be competitive for the next 10 seasons, maybe win another title, but ultimately just be remembered as "another team"

Having been a Phillies fan through some terrible terrible seasons, I can say it's not an easy choice to make. But ultimately, if you have a chance to win it all, I think you have to go for it and not worry about tomorrow.

That's not to say I'm not excited for Roy Halladay in a Phillies uniform. He's going to be great, and this team is certainly the favorite in the National League once again. However, if we fall just short again this year, there's always going to be that big what if. This could have been one of the greatest teams of all-time. Now? We'll see.

BOWL PICKS

New Mexico Bowl: Fresno St over Wyoming

St. Petersburg Bowl: Rutgers over UCF

New Orleans Bowl: So. Miss over Mid Tenn State

Las Vegas Bowl: Oregon St over BYU

Poinsettia Bowl: Cal over Utah

Hawaii Bowl: Nevada over SMU

Little Caesars Bowl (is Little Caesars still in existence? If it is, how do they have money for a bowl game?): Marshall over Ohio

Meineke Car Care Bowl: Pitt over Tyler Hansbrough

Emerald Bowl: USC over Boston College

Music City Bowl: Clemson over Kentucky

Independence Bowl: Georgia over Texas A&M

EagleBank Bowl: UCLA over Temple

Champs Sports Bowl: Miami over Wisconsin

Humanitarian Bowl: Bowling Green over Idaho

Holiday Bowl: Nebraska over Arizona

Armed Forces Bowl: Houston over Air Force

Sun Bowl: Oklahoma over Stanford

Texas Bowl: Missouri over Navy

Insight Bowl: Minnesota over Iowa State

Chick-fil-A Bowl: Virginia Tech over Tennessee

Outback Bowl: Auburn over Northwestern

Gator Bowl: Florida State over West Virginia

Capitol One Bowl: LSU over Penn State

Rose Bowl: Oregon over Ohio State

Sugar Bowl: Florida over Cincinnati

International Bowl: South Florida over Northern Illinois

Papajohns.com Bowl: South Carolina over UConn

Cotton Bowl: Ole Miss over Oklahoma State

Liberty Bowl: Arkansas over ECU

Alamo Bowl: Texas Tech over Michigan State

Fiesta Bowl: The College University over Boise State

Orange Bowl: Georgia Tech over Iowa

GMAC Bowl: Central Michigan over Troy

National Title Game: Texas over Alabama
It's a classic "two teams very close in talent but one team is still heavily favored because of what happened in their last games" game. Texas wins a close one.

The Third Annual Kevo College Football Playoff

Ladies, gentlemen, and Tom: in what is fast becoming a December tradition only rivaled by Christmas, it is now time for The Third Annual Kevo College Football Playoff.

The premise is simple: the BCS sucks. Everyone with half a brain knows this, unfortunately everyone with power in the NCAA has less than half a brain. The bigwigs don't want to lose money, teams don't want to left out of bowl games, and sponsors don't want to lose their bowl games. Of course, if anyone had common sense, none of this would have to happen. Luckily, I do have some common sense. If anyone with any power in the NCAA is reading this, here's how you do a playoff system.

1) 12 teams make the playoffs
In most years, there are easily 12 teams that legitimately could win a playoff. 8 teams is just not enough, and there probably aren't 16 teams that would really deserve it. 6 automatic bids are given to the big conference champions (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Pac-10, SEC) and six bids are given to at-large teams. The at-large teams can be decided either by a selection committee, or by a rating system similar to the BCS. For argument's sake, I'll use the BCS rankings for this season to pick the at-large teams. Teams are then seeded, again either by committee or rankings. The top 4 seeds get a bye. Here would be the teams for this season, with overall seed:
ACC Champ: Georgia Tech (9)
Big 10 Champ: Ohio State (8)
Big 12 Champ: Texas (2)
Big East Champ: Cincinnati (3)
Pac-10 Champ: Oregon (7)
SEC Champ: Alabama (1)
At-Large: TCU (4), Florida (5), Boise State (6), Iowa (10), Virginia Tech (11), LSU (12)

2) Every bowl game is still played
11 bowl games are part of the playoff system. The rest are played as they are now, outside of the playoffs. Detractors would say the non-playoff bowl games would be completely meaningless. Guess what? They are now.
The title game, semi-finals, and one quarter final game are played at the major bowl sites (Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta), with a rotation of which game gets the title game each year. The rest of the games are played at the bigger bowl sites (Cotton, Gator, Capital One, Holiday, Outback, Chick-fil-A, Liberty). And like college basketball, higher seeded teams get to play closer to home where possible.

3) How the schedule would work
Some people say there simply isn't enough time in the season for a playoff system. By the way, Ohio State is going to have a 41 day layoff before they play in the Rose Bowl. Yes, there's time.

Start the season on the first week of September. Every team gets 12 games with one bye week, 13 weeks total. This ends the regular season in the last week of November. The conference title games can be played the first week of December. Non-playoff bowl games can start the Saturday after and continue through the week. The first round of playoffs start the 3rd week of December. The second round is on the fourth Saturday. The semi-finals are on New Year's day (along with other non-playoff bowl games, there has to be a lot of games on New Year's after all). The title game is a week later. Now, was that so hard?

So here's how the playoff schedule would look this year:



First Round, Saturday, December 19th

5. Florida vs 12. LSU at the Outback Bowl (Tampa Bay)
6. Boise State vs 11. Virginia Tech at the Holiday Bowl (San Diego)
7. Oregon vs 10. Iowa at the Capitol One Bowl (Orlando)
8. Ohio State vs 9. Georgia Tech at the Chick-Fil-A Bowl (Atlanta)

Second Round, Saturday, December 26th

1. Alabama vs 8. Ohio State/9. Georgia Tech at the Orange Bowl (Miami)
2. Texas vs 7. Oregon/10. Iowa at the Cotton Bowl (Dallas)
3. Cincinnati vs. 6. Boise State/11. Virginia Tech at the Gator Bowl (Jacksonville)
4. TCU vs. 5. Florida/12. LSU at the Liberty Bowl (Memphis)

Semi-Finals, Friday, January 1st

Game One at Sugar Bowl (New Orleans)
Game Two at Fiesta Bowl (Glendale)

Finals, Thursday, January 7th

Rose Bowl (Pasadena)


Is it perfect? No, teams from Florida (i.e. Florida) get a huge advantage because so many of the bowl games are played in their home state. Different bowl sites might have to be used every year, but honestly, wouldn't this be so much better than the way things currently are?

Of course, we have to simulate this to figure out who the real National Champion is. Once I get/steal a copy of NCAA 10 from someone, it will be done. Stay tuned.