Lance Armstrong

One of my favorite athletes and role models is Lance Armstrong...7 time winner of the Tour de France, cancer survivor and founder of the Livestrong Foundation. Along with Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods (and maybe Wayne Gretzky) he is one of only a few athletes that has transcended sports in the past 50 years. Lance is bigger than just cycling...which is even more impressive given the backseat cycling usually takes to football, baseball, basketball and hockey.

Through intense cancer treatments (in the middle of his run of 7 straight TDF titles) and tremendous scrutiny by the international doping community (aka drug testing) Lance has overcome everything and continued to be one of the most influential athletes and spokespeople in the world. Lance has never tested positive on a drug test (despite being tested dozens of times every year for the past 10+ years...he was tested 52 times in 2009 alone). Love him or hate him...Lance Armstrong is a model of consistency and athleticism.

NFL Playoffs

It's nail biting time for several NFL teams as we head into the final 2 weeks of the season. While the NFC playoff picture is nearly settled (the Giants need some help to steal a playoff spot from the Cowboys or Packers) the AFC has dozens of scenarios that could play out over the next two weeks.

To understand the AFC playoff picture (in this case the wild card scenario)...here's a few notes to keep in mind:
1. If two teams are tied for a wild card position the first tie breaker is head to head record. If the two teams have not played each other or have split the season series 1-1 (in the case of division teams) you move to the next tie breaker.
2. Conference record is the next tie breaker...if the two teams are still tied it moves to the next tie breaker.
3. The third tie breaker is winning percentage among common opponent (must have at least 4 common opponents for this tie breaker to be in play).

So...taking the current AFC playoff picture into account and the three tie breakers mentioned above...the AFC looks like this:

Baltimore and Denver currently hold the #5 and #6 playoff slots with records of 8-6. There are 6 teams behind them at 7-7. As it stands right now if both teams win their final two games they are both in the playoffs at 10-6 as no 7-7 team can catch up over the last two weeks. Should Baltimore or Denver go 1-1 or 0-2 over the next two weeks many scenarios come into play.

Here's a breakdown of each team's remaining games and their conference record (plus any notes of interest):

Currently in the playoffs in order of tiebreaker seed:
* Baltimore 8-6 (6-4 in AFC games)...plays at Pittsburgh and at Oakland
* Denver 8-6 (6-5)...plays at Philly and vs. Kansas City

Currently out of the playoffs in order of tiebreaker seed
* Jacksonville 7-7 (6-4)...plays at New England and at Cleveland
* Miami 7-7 (5-5)...plays vs. Houston and vs. Pittsburgh
* NY Jets 7-7 (5-5)...plays at Indy and vs. Cincinnati
* Pittsburgh 7-7 (4-6)...plays vs. Baltimore and at Miami
* Tennessee 7-7 (4-7)...plays vs. San Diego and at Seattle
* Houston 7-7 (4-6)...plays at Miami and vs. New England

Looking at the current overall records, AFC records and remaining schedule for all the teams...here's my prediction.

Baltimore and Denver split their final two games and end up 9-7. Miami wins their final two games and ends up 9-7. Those three teams end up in a tie breaker scenario.

Jacksonville, Pittsburgh and Tennessee go 1-1 and end up 8-8 and out of the playoffs. The Jets and Houston lose their final two games and end up 7-9...out of the playoffs.

Now, back to the 3 team playoff tie breaker scenario with Baltimore, Denver and Miami all at 9-7. Baltimore defeated Denver in the regular season and because of that has the tie breaker over the Broncos and the Ravens are in the playoffs.

This leaves Denver and Miami for the last playoff slot. They did not play each other in the regular season so the next tie breaker is conference record (Denver 7-5...Miami 7-5)...on to the next tiebreaker which is record against common opponents (minimum 4 games vs. common opponents). Both teams played New England, Pittsburgh, San Diego and Indianapolis (Miami played the Patriots twice). In those games Denver was 1-3 and Miami was 2-3...the playoff spot goes to Miami...Denver is out of luck.

And in all of this...my Pittsburgh Steelers need a miracle to make the playoffs...but it all starts next week against Baltimore!

Todays Ramblings: College Football Coaches and College Football Bowls/Playoffs

Here's a question...

Why do college athletes have to sit out a year athletically when they transfer to a new school but college coaches are free to break contracts with their former schools and sign lucrative contracts at a new school..see Brian Kelly who moved from the Univ. of Cincinnati to Notre Dame last week.

Sure, Brian Kelly earned a shot at coaching at one of the premiere football schools in the country but abandoning his Cincinnati team prior to their marquee Bowl game vs. Florida was a classless decision on his part.

The argument by many for this decision is "coaches have to jump ship early to begin their recruiting process." Ba-loney...you finish the job you were hired to do! Would Notre Dame have hired a different coach if Kelly decided to finish out the season with Cincinnati...I doubt it. In my opinion, if coaches want to break contracts to sign one with a different school...they should have to sit out a "transfer" year to do it...period.

New topic: The BCS and the College Bowl system...

One of the arguments for the current BCS bowl system is it has to be this way because of college final exams...essentially...kids can't miss their Finals because they are playing every weekend in a national college football tournament. This is perhaps the single worst argument for the BCS bowl system.

College basketball forces players to miss days...and sometimes weeks...of classes to travel all over the country for days at a time to play in the NCAA Hoops tourney in March/April.

College football teams in Division I, II and III (aka Football Championship Series) all hold posteason tournaments forcing players to travel all over the country for 3-4 weekends to participate in their games...why can't Football Bowl Series teams do the same?

I understand the bowls are big money makers for schools but what the higher ups fail to realize is they are playing second fiddle to the NCAA basektball tournament by continuing the current bowl system. Imagine the hype, TV dollars, etc that would be generated by a BCS Tournament! Sure, some teams are going to be left out of the tournament but at least 8-12 teams would have a shot at the national championship instead of two teams under the current system.

This year, three undefeated teams don't have a shot at the title...unheard of! Imagine an eight team tournament this year with Alabama, Texas, Florida, Cincinnati, Boise State, TCU, Oregon and Ohio State...it would be tremendous! Just like the other football divisions (I, II and III) the team with the better seed would be the home team and no teams would play more than three games in the tournament. We already have to wait 4-5 weeks after the regular season and conference championships for the better teams to play in their bowl games...why not fill that time with three rounds of a college football championship tournament?

1st Post on Bucktail Jed!

Hello all and welcome to Bucktail Jed...my new Blog where I will tell the tales of my experiences, comment on the news of the day and post photos/videos of all sorts.

First, a little about myself. My name is Matt Herring, I'm 34 years old and I work for Strike One Sports Complex in Danvers, MA.

I am recently engaged and have a 7 year old cat named Deuce. I'm a graduate of Towanda High School (PA) and Canisius College (Buffalo, NY).

Interests include anything sports and Civil War Reenacting (pic of me in my CW uniform included). I just joined the 28th MA Irish Brigade reenactors and will be starting with them in January of 2010. I am also a member of the 149th PA Bucktails and will also be falling in with them over the course of the summer.

You might be wondering why my Blog is named "Bucktail Jed"...my Dad was a Civil Reenactor for the 139th and 149th PA Bucktails for more than 20 years and he was commonly referred to as "Jed X"...hence the name of the Blog. For the record, my Bucktail name is Cogburn Chisholm Hastings (CC Hastings for short).

Thanks for following my blog and stay tuned for daily, weekly and monthly updates!