College football and a family tradition

Some things are just no-brainers. Only an utterly mindless fool would ignore the obvious and fail to see the inevitable. Yours truly stated a while back there was no way Alabama could be beaten this season. Furthermore, any idiot knew Oregon and Kansas State would run the table. To boot, even a potted plant had enough sense to know Notre Dame was over-hyped and had no business becoming #2 and sneaking into the national championship game.

On second thought, perhaps yours truly is dumber than all the above. I'm not at all sure what that makes me, but you name a prediction I make, and the best thing you can do is put all your money on the other team. I think I inherited that from my late father. Way back in yesteryear, Friday night at the fights was a holy thing in our house. Dad would settle in with a couple E&B's, or maybe it was Pfeiffer's, and give us a pre-fight lecture as to why Joe Palooka would easily defeat Rocky Maraschino. Within a few rounds, down would go Joe -- KO-ed -- outta here. It never failed. That was a good time for a young boy to be vewy, vewy quiet, as Elmer Fudd used to say. It was definitely NOT a good time to ask for a raise in my allowance. At any rate, I suspect I inherited his "talent" for handicapping sports contests, so it's certainly not my fault I get one wrong, or maybe all of them, when I make predictions.

Regardless, there was quite a shake-up at the top of college football today. #1 Kansas State got beat 52-24, as in four touchdowns worth by, Baylor, an unranked team. Consider the Wildcats Joe Palooked. Outta here. #2 Oregon went down 17-14, in overtime, at home, to Stanford. The Cardinal were the #13 ranked team, not too shabby, but still, a loss at home by the Ducks will send them migrating southward in the polls too.

#3 Notre Dame took care of of business, exorcising the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest 38-0. As did Alabama, thrashing Western Carolina to the tune of 49-0.

It's very likely that when the next rankings come out tomorrow, Notre Dame will be #1, and Bama will be #2. No, it's not a done deal just yet that they'll meet in the championship game. ND still has to go to USC for their regular season closer. The Trojans were the preseason #1 in the polls, yet they've woefully underachieved, getting beat yet again today by their cross-town rival UCLA.  But anything can happen when those two teams get together. Bama will likely have to face Georgia in the SEC championship game, which will be played in Atlanta. The Bulldogs were flying under the radar at #5 before today, and will likely be #3 when the new polls come out. Both teams have one loss. Whoever wins THAT game likely goes on to the BCS championship bowl. Many thought the SEC's 6 year reign on the national championship was over after Alabama went down a while back. Perhaps not. The fat lady is biding her time in the wings.

Here's a prediction you can count on. Lou Holtz will be all smiles for at least the next week when he's on TV.

And in deference to my late beloved father, here's one more.

The Packers will thoroughly trounce the Lions at Ford Field today and the Lions have absolutely no shot at making the playoffs.

There. Given that I'm always wrong, that ought to do it. If you're a Lions' fan.

Dad might even be proud of me to carry on the family tradition of picking losers. There was this girl I almost married once, and she turned out to be.... well, this probably isn't the place for that -- but let's just say, back in the day, people always used to say I sure could pick em. Never was sure what they meant by that.

This picking stuff is hard. Life was a lot simpler when I was dad's remote control, watching the Joe Palooka of the week get knocked out, and fetching him a bottle of Drewry's. Or was that Carling Black Label?

Beats me, and I never did get that raise in my allowance either. Dad made me mow lawns, shovel snow, and even get a paper route. Like real jobs. Having endured the mental anguish of such an abusive childhood -- no wonder I'm so screwed up today.