I Love College Football-Kasparek Poll

Oh my, how I love college football...How can you not...I have always loved it more than any other sport and it trumps the NFL every time for me...every time.  The reason, very simple, from week to week you never really know what can happen.  It is real drama with real "kids", with no "real" money...this season is shaping up to be a classic...a classic pain in the ass to fans and media folks around the country.

So here it is, the NEW Kasparek Poll...

1) Florida State-They will not have REAL test until the BCS Championship Game...Duke or UNC in a few weeks in the ACC Championship game and Florida next week....The only thing that could bring down the seminoles at this point is if the allegations being flung QB 1's way are true.
2) Auburn-If, and I think they will, beat Alabama, they are in the Championship game.
3) Alabama-See #2...
4) Ohio State-I want them to lose to Michigan.  I repeat, I want them to lose to Michigan.  I do not think it will happen, but I want them to lose to Michgan.  What can I say, I am a Homer...:)
5) Oklahoma State- They did not just beat Baylor, they DESTROYED them.....
6) Clemson-Not a lot of people are paying attention to them, but that loss to FSU is not looking as bad as it once did.
7) Missouri-Big game this week against A&M
8) South Carolina-Big week with Clemson coming to town.
9) Michigan State-They have a lot of ground to make up, but could over the next month.
10) Baylor- That was an A$$ whooping.  When you want to be the best you have to WIN the tough ones.

No longer in the TOP 10 and should not be: Oregon, Stanford

Big Games this week-
Minnesota at Michigan State-MSU
Ohio State at Michigan-OSU, but I repeat I want Michigan to win.
Florida State and Florida- Not even Tim Tebow can save the Gators this week.
Alabama at Auburn- Auburn
Clemson at South Carolina- South Carolina
A&M at Missouri-Missouri
UCLA at USC-USC has completely turned around their season.  Take off the interim tag and hire the guy already.
Arizona at Arizona State-ASU, Zona cannot do it two weeks in a row....

A New #1...for now....

Over the next few weeks the Top 10 is going to be CRAZY...at least that's what I predict....but like I said last week, I am done going off of the polls....This is the Kasparek Poll...

Top 12

Baylor- Sorry FSU fans, but Baylor is pretty unreal, and their schedule keeps getting stronger, while the Seminoles keeps getting weaker..
FSU-See #1
Auburn-Yep, it took a last second Holy Sh*t play, but their running attack is crazy.
Alabama-Sorry Tide...no not really.
Ohio State-Still not that convinced on them, but they keep taking care of business.
Clemson
Missouri
Oregon-Pac 12 not looking so good these days....
Oklahoma State-Impressive victories, and could get better.
Texas A&M-Johnny Sharpie continues to impress and much as I hate saying it.
South Carolina-Nothing special, but takes care of business.
Michigan State

HUGE Games w/ Predictions:

Toledo OVER Northern Illinois @ Toledo
A&M OVER LSU @ LSU
Michigan State over Northwestern @ Northwestern
UCLA OVER Arizona State @ UCLA
Kansas State over Oklahoma @ K State
Oklahoma State over Baylor @ Oklahoma State

Trap Doors and the 1st REAL Kasparek Poll...

Yep, I fell into the trap...I did what all of us do...I looked at the polls, looked at the future games and more importantly, I let the BCS dictate my thinking...

This past weekend I did something all sports fans like to do....Debate sports...but more importantly debate COLLEGE FOOTBALL...I have never for a second flip flopped on what sport is my favorite...COLLEGE FOOTBALL...my favorite team...IOWA....my favorite conference.....THE BIG TEN(I know, I know there are not 10 TEAMS), let it die.

In that debate, I faced a hard truth and reality...I was letting the polls etc. dictate who I thought was the best...IT was not me, it was a combination of things....

That being said, I also came to a realization(which probably happened many, many years ago)...that all followers of any team in any conference can argue till they are red in the face why there conference is the best in the WORLD...and you know what...there is nothing wrong with that....

So without further ado...here is the 1st REAL Kasparek Football Poll...This is based on what I have seen, what I believe, who they have played thus far, who they have beat, and who they have lost to and where....

1) I do feel that losses can be worse than others..
2) I do feel that where you loose can have an impact.
3) The # of quality wins does matter...
4) If you were at full strength at the time of a win or a loss can matter.
5) Where you started in the poll does not matter...If it was up to me...Poll would not happen until just about now...
6) I do feel that how you win matters....

1) Florida State
2) Baylor
3) Alabama
4) Auburn
5) Ohio State
6) Clemson
7) Missouri
8) Oregon
8.1) Stanford(They LOST to UTAH)
10) Oklahoma State
11) South Carolina
12) Texas A&M
13) Michigan State

GO HAWKS!!!!!!!

Hodge Podge Saturday.....

So sports just seems to get wackier and crazier by the day.  Sports reporters and sports news agencies all looking to BREAK the story seem to dig for anything and everything.  Shoot, who am I kidding, this is not just sports reporting, rather reporting in general these days.

Case in point, the entire Ingognito and Martin case in Miami.  Does anyone outside of the team know what is happening...nope, but you would think so.  There are way too many inconsistencies in everyones stories to even begin to know.  What I hate, and could add to my list previously in the week, is how ALL of us, including myself latch on only to the side of the story that interests us.  We will look for any news source, article, picture that provides us with our side of the story and too many times fail to look for the facts.  Example in this story...has anyone looked and seen if the transcripts of the phone calls included the entire conversations?  I can tell you they have not.

Best banter I have heard so far about this situation was via Mike and Mike's Podcast from the 7th....granted the 8th may even be better, but have not a chance to listen to it yet...

Now to the fun side of sports...

1) College Basketball Season has started.....and the truth is we really do not know anything...you think the College Football Polling can be crazy...It has nothing on the Basketball poll which will chenge 6,432.433 times before March Madness gets here....What we do know, and as Joey from friends used to say....Kansas..GOOD....Duke...Good....Kentucky....Good....Michigan State...Good....Louisville....Good....and the best thing for this HOMER...Iowa will eventually be ranked this season....

See as many games as you can of any Freshman in College Basketball with just a hint of talent...It may be the only season you ever see them play a meaningful game again....because it will be 1 and done for most of them before they go for the dollars in the NBA....The top ones of course will go to the teams with the worst NBA records, and they may someday get a chance to play for a contender, but more than likely not....

Another thing you just learned about my sports interests....College Basketball over NBA Basketball anyday.

2)College and Pick-ems for this weekend for the Top 25 and Iowa...

Iowa over Purdue(HOMER-VILLE, all the way)
Missouri over Kansas
FSU over Wake
Auburn over TN in TN
Texas Tech over KSU
Mississippi St will fall to A&M
Wisconsin over BYU
ASU will go to Utah and do what Stanford still wonders how they didn't.
Oklahoma State over Kansas
Miami over Virginia Tech
Central Florida over Houston
BAMA big over LSU
Notre Dame over Pitt
ZONA over UCLA
Fresno State over Wyoming

Happy Saturday and GO HAWKS!!!!

KASPAREK POLL 1.1 and Fantasy Football Angst...

Yep...picked that game correctly didn't I.  Oh wait...nope, had OREGON trouncing Stanford, and in a term that is sometimes overly used..."That's why they play the games"

I did correctly pick the Baylor Beat down of Oklahoma, so 1 and 1 isn't to shabby....

and in Fantasy Football news, the ever frustrating choice of Eli Manning or RGIII continues to drive me absolutely nuts this season.  Sat RGIII last night along with his 30+ points.

Eli, can you possibly give me just a small percentage of what your big brother provides his Fantasy Football owners....Please....

So here it is the Updated Kasparek College Football Poll going into the weekend...

1-BAMA
2-FSU-One more tough game...
3-OSU-Not a tough schedule.
4-BAYLOR-For a few more weeks...they have a brutal schedule the rest of the way.
5-MISSOURI
6-STANFORD
7-OREGON
8-MIAMI
9-CLEMSON
10-AUBURN

The Night of Oregon and Stanford...

So Oregon and Stanford play tonight.  Pretty big game for both schools.  Oregon wins and they have smooth sailing the rest of the season.  Oh sure all of the OSU(Oregon State) fans out there want to say the "Civil War" game sparks a chance...Nope, it really does not.  Stanford wins and it keeps them away from the dreaded 2 loss mark and keeps them relevant in the BCS picture for at least another 2 weeks or so.

If Oregon loses, it knocks them out of the National Championship Picture and also worries the Duck fans that they may not even make it to the Rose Bowl.

The BIG, HUGE, POTENTIAL WINNER tonight...Florida State.

Oregon Loses, and Florida State is the clear cut favorite, and the team with the easiest road to the National Championship.

That all being said, Oregon will pound Stanford, Stanford will have 2 losses, and Florida State and Oregon will continue to jump back and forth over each other till one looses...

Idiots of the day:  http://espn.go.com/chicago/nfl/story/_/id/9936032/chicago-bears-fan-tasers-green-bay-packers-fan-wife

Get them out of the way now, and discuss later....

So as sports fans we all have those things that we cannot stand, or that absolutely drive us nuts, or on the other hand absolutely love.....here are a few of mine....and please, please chime in on the comments...do not be afraid....

1) DRIVES me nuts when athletes on the teams that I cheer for talk smack about the other team during the week leading up to the game. The good news is Iowa has not had the chance to do this much lately.

Seriously, don't most fans want their players to shut the hell up and just play.  Hey Oregon fans, how many of you are exicted about your boy telling the media that they are going to put 40 points up on Stanford.

Now don't get me wrong, I love if the opposite happens and Iowa is the underdog(which they most of the time are), and the other team talks shit.  Motivate, Motivate, Motivate....as in most sports cases...lots and lots of hypocrisy....

2) I hate penalties on excessive celebrating in the end zone...Are you flipping kidding me...Celebrate, Celebrate, Celebrate...Someone wants to go and do something apeshit crazy that hurts them...so be it...I miss seing College Athletes getting excited after scoring a basket, catching the late TD pass etc.  LET THEM HAVE FUN!!!!!

3) I like replay in Football, but we do it wrong...Why can't we just have one more official that is under the hood all the time...Seriously...the red flag gets thrown, the guy watches, and he has 30 seconds to decide.  This of course would replace the 100 yard dash to the hood, getting the headphones from the hood guy, and then waiting WAY TOO LONG for the replay....Call me CRAZY, but I have never been to a football watching party and it take more than 30 seconds for the FANS to know what the hell happened.

4) The DH in AL is AWESOME and the Pitcher hitting in NL is just as AWESOME...

5) Speaking of Baseball....outlawing collisions at the plate...ladies and gentleman another example of the Wussification of America.  Thats why they have pads....While we are at, but the cage in front of the pitching mound to protect the pitchers, give all of the fans helmets, and make the balls out of NERF....

6) Tickets for all sporting Events should be sold at face value.  How do we do it, control it?  Hell, I have no idea, but I think it would be nice...

7) Ball Parks, Bowl Games, Tournaments etc. should not have Cheesy Ass Names that are there because of the company willing to give the most money...Put the company's name all over the programs, the T-shirts, caps, etc. but not the event/stadium..ie. These were fine at one time...

8) There are too many damn bowl games.  Not every team in DI football has to play in a bowl game...Just blew the dust off of an old Iowa Football Program from the 85-86 Season....These were the bowls....go back and refresh on #7 before reading..

Independence Bowl
California Bowl
Cherry Bowl
Holiday Bowl
Florida Citrus Bowl
Aloha Bowl
Sun Bowl
Freedom Bowl
Liberty Bowl
Gator Bowl
Peach Bowl
All-American Bowl
Bluebonnet Bowl
Cotton Bowl
Fiesta Bowl
Sugar Bowl
Rose Bowl
Orange Bowl

9) Be a Proud Homer, and if you do not have a team to be a Homer about, find one soon, and then GO ALL IN!!!!!

10) Have sports heroes.  Sure we have been let down by some pompous ass primadonnas as of late, but never stop hoping that the next one will be one we can be proud of.
****and NO I AM NOT SAYING THAT ONLY ATHLETES CAN BE HEROES!!!!!

11) Idiot of the DAY, the lady that thought it was a GREAT idea to dress up as a Boston Marathon Runner who survived the bombing...scars and everything...if you have not seen it, google it..REally? Really?

GO HAWKS!!!!!!

Intro to HOMER-VILLE

I love Sports, I love Sports, I love Sports, and I LOVE the HAWKEYES..What can I say...always have, and always will....Dad actually used to say to me, "If you would spend as much time studying your school work as you do the Hawks and Sports...who knows?"

He was/is, probably right, so I have decided to combine my passion for sports, and give the Naples version of From the Bench a sibling.  People are going to agree, disagree, banter, talk smack, etc. but I do have ONE IMPORTANT RULE...No hate...you hate towards another HOMER and you are done...There is no place for it here, and I cannot stand it...We can be civil and talk sports in such away.

I am going to share my suggestions for Sports Books, Movies, Articles...Provide commentary on popular sports info etc.  How often am I going to post...No Clue....but this should be fun....

So here we go.....

KASPAREK COLLEGE FOOTBALL POLL from 11/4/2013(with some corrections)

1-BAMA-Will steamroll LSU this weekend, sorry Jimmy Angerman....and they will not face a REAL test till last game of regular season at Auburn.
2-UO(corrected for the Blog Chris Denison, Kori Sickles and Dane Adams)-Will not lose in Palo Alto to Stanford, but may to Arizona two weeks later in Tucson.
3-FSU-is on fire, and so is Renee Rhinehart about this team. No real test for them either until last week of Season against Florida in the Swamp.
4-OSU-Big Ten is week(crying as I type it), but all this winning could be for naught as they will enter last game of regular season in Ann Arbor undefeated, and the Wolverines will have nothing to lose.
5-Baylor-Will roll over the Sooners this Thursday night, and remain undefeated for a few more weeks before losing to Ok State in Stillwater.

6-Stanford-for one more week...Then they will fall after they lose to Oregon.

7-Missouri

8-Miami-bad loss to a GREAT team, and cannot drop them below Clemson.
9-Clemson
10-Oklahoma-for one more week and then they will drop after there loss to Oklahoma.

11-Auburn(which could see a big jump next week if they take care of business at TN, because then they have the most to gain with Georgia and Alabama coming to town back to back.
12-Texas A&M-Not ready to put this in Permanent Marker yet (What? To soon?)
13-LSU-will drop next week after a blow out loss to Alabama.
14-South Carolina
15-Fresno State(Still undefeated and will remain so until they lose to San Jose State their last game of the regular season.)

16-Northern Illinois(will remain undefeated until their last game of the regular season @ Toledo)
17-Oklahoma State who has a TON to gain with there final three games being @ Texas, and at home against Baylor(to give them their first loss) and Oklahoma.
18-Central Florida-Should be higher than most are putting them, simply because they beat Louisville at Louisville.
19-Michigan State- Big Ten may be bad, but they continue to produce.
20-Louisville-because I can drop a team below a team that beat them head to head. 

21-Wisconsin-They continue to get it done, will not lose another game this season and their only two loses are to Ohio State and Arizona State, who enters my poll for the first time this week.
22-Arizona State-brutal schedule the rest of the way.
23-Notre Dame-squeaked by Navy and they are squeaking in to my Top 25.
24-Ole Miss-Their losses are @ Auburn, @ Alabama, and at home against Texas A&M as opposed to Georgia, BYU, Oregon State, Virginia Tech, and Houston, all of which have BAD losses. It was the lesser of evils.

25. Texas Tech-Loss to Oklahoma State is not to bad...