The Bizniz, Volume 4, Issue 7

It was a rough week for picks last week for both Chesh and I. I rolled the dice on more upset picks than usual (just the way the matchups worked out) and they did not pan out. I do want to say, though, that I thought Arkansas/Texas A&M was a true road game for the Hogs (from a cursory glance at the schedule), not a neutral site game so there's a little asterisk there for me. It was a close game.

Hill: 108-16 (4-7 upsets) overall, 13-7 (1-3) last week
Chesh: 99-25 (3-11 upsets) overall, 12-8 (0-3) last week

Helmet stickers for last week: many really good choices out there. I went with Andrew Luck, Stanford QB (20-24, 285, 3 td's, no picks). I mainly went with Luck because he played great in what has become a really good rivalry game, and the game went right down to the wire with two ranked teams. Chesh went with Taylor Martinez, Nebraska QB (369 all purpose, 5 total td's). Cam Newton from Auburn gets the honorable mention from both of us. Check Chesh's full game capsules at http://jimmiecheshsports.blogspot.com/

We'll see how this week's picks go. (* denotes upset)

South Florida 16
#25 West Virginia 35
Chesh: West Va 31 S. Fla 10

Illinois 17
#11 Michigan State 41
Chesh: Mich St 44 Ill 20

Boston College 21
#17 Florida State 43
Chesh: Fla St 37 BC 14

#19 Missouri 34
Texas A&M 30
Chesh: A&M 28 Mizz 24

Texas 17
#4 Nebraska 36
Chesh: Neb 31 Tex 21

Game of the Week
#13 Arkansas 28*
#7 Auburn 23
Chesh: Aub 27 Ark 24

#14 Iowa 30
#24 Michigan 24
Chesh: Mich 35 Iowa 21

#18 Oklahoma State 40
Texas Tech 24
Chesh: Okla St 48 TexT 38

BYU 17
#5 TCU 34
Chesh: TCU 48 BYU 27

#12 South Carolina 33
Kentucky 23
Chesh: S. Car 27 UK 17

#10 Utah 45
Wyoming 20
Chesh: Utah 59 Wyo 10

#1 Ohio State 34
#16 Wisconsin 21
Chesh: Ohio St 24 Wisc 20

Iowa State 24
#6 Oklahoma 48
Chesh: Okla 54 Iowa St 17

McNeese State 6
#9 LSU 39
Chesh: LSU 44 McSU 6

Mississippi State 17
#22 Florida 27
Chesh: Fla 26 Miss St 13

#20 Arizona 42
Washington State 24
Chesh: Ariz 45 Wash St 17

#3 Boise State 48
San Jose State 17
Chesh: Boise 58 SJSU 13

#23 Air Force 35
San Diego State 28
Chesh: AF 34 SDSU 21

Ole Miss 14
#8 Alabama 32
Chesh: Bama 41 Ole Miss 21

#21 Nevada 44
Hawaii 14
Chesh: Nev 52 Haw 41

Non Top 25 Game
Kansas State 27
Kansas 21
Chesh: K-St 34 KU 17

As an Atlanta Braves fan of almost 20 years now, I have to take a minute to shout out Bobby Cox, the manager of the Braves who as of last night is now retired from MLB. Cox led the Braves from worst to first in 1991 and never looked back. The Braves won an unmatched 14 straight division titles in the National League, 5 NL pennants, and a World Series championship in 1995. True, 14 playoff appearances yielding only one title is disappointing. I certainly would love to have had more championships to celebrate. But when Cox took over the Braves in 1990 they were a cellar dweller for well over a decade. He, along with GM John Schuerholz, built the Braves into a perennial contender. I think it's a good time to move forward as an organization and get a new manager (word is that fomer Marlins manager--and one time Braves bench coach--Fredi Gonzalez is the favorite) after Cox has helmed the Braves for over 20 years. But Bobby Cox is a legend in baseball and he deserves all the credit in the world for what he's done in Atlanta. Cox finished with 2,504 wins, good for 4th all time. He was a 4 time Manger of the Year (3 with Atlanta). Most importantly, he'd take a bullet for any one of his players, as evidenced by his record 158 ejections, almost always for arguing on behalf of a player. On behalf of all Braves fans, thanks for the memories.

Also, I want to shout the ESPN documentary series 30 for 30. I haven't seen them all but I have caught many of them and they are outstanding. I loved the one about the Miami Hurricanes of the 80's and 90's, entitled The U. Another doc that I was a fan of was Straight Outta L.A., which documented the rise of hip-hop in SoCal and the inexorable connection with the then-L.A. Raiders. Run Ricky Run was a fascinating glimpse into the life of the enigmatic Ricky Williams.The recent one about the incredible Red Sox comeback of 2004 (Four Days in October) was great. This week's was called Once Brothers. It was about the early days of European basketball with the likes of Vlade Divac, Drazen Petrovic, and Toni Kukoc, among others. It was phenomenal, perhaps the best in the series thus far. I remember the dawn of the Euro invasion with the aforementioned names in the late 80's. Add the drama of war torn Yugoslavia and its factions of Croats and Serbs and you have an extremely compelling story that I knew nothing about. Do yourself a favor and watch it.