College Football Pools

Everyone I know does a college basketball pool. You know, the brackets they pass around the office and the guy who university of Florida won last year. But not many people I know do college football pools.

There is just not the same thrill and challenge in the football pool. There is no final culminating game, where there is always one national champion. Football doesn't offer any of that, but if you like to gamble, talk trash with your friends, I highly recommend doing at least one.

I am doing two this year. And as of today, I have a shot at winning either one, though I doubt I will win either.

There are a couple of ways to do it. One is that you could just choose games and not worry about the point spread. Its pretty lame, but it could work. Upsets happen, and you would definitely have to step up and choose a couple if you wanted to win. The other way and and my opinion the best way is to have the point spread included in the picks.

Once you include the spread, you can make the rest of the rules as you see fit. In one pool every game has the same value until you get into the BCS games and then the value doubles. In the other, we ranked the games 1 to 32 in order of which games we felt were more of lock.

Next year before the bowl games, get together with your buddies and start a pool. Well worth your time.

Heidi Bowl nightmare?

Jets win and they are in. These games are the reason I am a fan of the NFL. When you cheer for a crappy college team, you pretty much just cheer for a crappy team. Maybe once in a blue moon, they'll pull of the big upset, but they are unlikely to make a run at a conference championship let alone the national championship.

But in the NFL, everything is different. When you cheer for a normally downtrodden team like the Jets, every four or five years, you will probably get to see them play a significantly important game and probably more than one (unless you are the cardinals).

But the worst team in football is in the Jets way. The Jets are huge favorites. They have been a rare favorite this year, and I don't think they have been favored by more than 6 all year, but now they are 13 to 13.5 point favorites on the biggest game of the year.

For some reason, I just don't feel good about this game. Maybe its the fact that the Jets need to get ahead early or they pretty much defenseless. Or it could be the fact that the Raiders would want nothing more to fly across the country and be the biggest spoilers. Maybe its the fact that the Raiders D coordinator aspires for something bigger and with the opportunity to show all of New York his skills, he'll come up with something great for Sunday.

Maybe its because of the Heidi bowl. Its a guarantee that the announcers bring it up at least once. Probably even twice.

Maybe its the fact that these two teams have played 11 times in 10 years. Which is probably the most to teams not in the same division have played each other in the last 10 years.

Either way, I am skipping my New Years festivities just for the game. It'll be a much happier one if they win.

Is my bulldog worth $1500

Whenever someone comes and meets my dog, they are always taken back by how friendly and loving she is. For a forty pound monster, she is the cuddliest dog I have ever met and my mom always had a 'lap' dog when I was growing up. She is extremely playful with people and any dog that isn't deathly afraid of her. She likes going for walks, but would probably rather play tug.

After people meet her, they are normally impressed with her demeanor and few are not drawn into her charm. Its to the point, where you can almost see them working out the 'maybe our next dog should be a bulldog' ideas through their heads.

Then they drop the 'how much did she cost' question. I know, 15 hundred is a lot for a dog. Its twice as much as my first car and the same price as my second. But when we were looking for a dog, we were looking for a family member that fit our lifestyle. I couldn't handle a dog that needed to be run, or was to fragile to be wrestled with. And neither of us would have been happy if the dog needed a huge yard and wide open spaces, when all I could provide is a 20' by 20' back yard.

So yes, Kelly is worth every penny. Good breeding and the right dog make all the difference.

Online vs Classic College

There really is no comparison between the two. I spent 3 years going to a 'real' university (U of MN) and I have spent the last 3 months going working on my masters at an online university (AMU), and really the curriculum, work required and educational benefit are like the difference between HBO and normal TV. Its not fair to compare the two.

The major problem (or benefit in my case) is that online schools care about one thing, and that is having students enrolled. There is no connection to a state, city or religion. Its all about having students enrolled to get a piece of paper.

So if you always thought a degree was out of your reach, have no fear, for $250 a credit hour, you too can be a college graduate.