Detroit Heavy Favorites/ND Faces Great Challenge--not!!

It's Saturday night in Korea, which means Saturday morning on the East coast, which means roQQ is about to try my legendary patience by talking shit about Notre Dame. I guess I could refuse to publish his childish remarks, or better yet, give him up to Brick Top, but hey, this is America, theoretically at least, so you know, freedom of the press and what not. Anyway, what's he gonna do otherwise? Talk about Michigan State? Might as well go to work on yourself with an ice pick and a ball-peen hammer. I notice roQQ isn't laying the 8 on State over Northwestern, and who can blame him? Might as well go bungee jumping with third-hand cords from a flea market. Might as well go trolling for dates at your family reunion. Might as well...ah, I've said enough. Might as well let roQQ say his piece.

Ummm...fuck Notre Dame! Just kidding Mick--sort of. Having missed my chance to bet on a Tiger sweep of Oakland, I see that the oddsmakers have caught up with me and picked Detroit to win in about five. On bodog.com the odds are as follows, translated into fractions, which is how I prefer to get down.

Tigers in 4 15-4
Tigers in 5 5-2
Tigers in 6 13-4
Tigers in 7 24-5

Cardinals in 7 5-1
Cardinals in 6 5.35-1? 5.35 is a hard thing to fraction.
Cardinals in 5 9-1
Cardinals in 4 18-1

Every outcome where the Cardinals win is considered to be a longer shot than the longest Tiger long shot, Tigers in 7. At 5-1 or less, I don't think it's worth betting on any of the Tigers winning results. I'm just wondering if Oakland would be this heavily favored against the Cardinals or Mets, since the AL is considered to be so much stronger these days.

I don't like betting on individual baseball games (I think I'm 1-1 this season), but I think I'll take Detroit and Verlander in game 1 over Reyes, giving 1.5. Why not?

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking down to college football time, so lets get busy.

texas(-6)overNEBRASKA On bet365.com the line is -4.5. Thanks, congress, you cocksuckers. I'm leaning toward a convincing Texas win, but 1.5 points is 1.5 points! Go Colt McCoy!

miami(-18)overDUKE Miami isn't that good, but Duke is TERRIBLE. Seems like there are a few mismatched like this every week. You just have to go find them.

TENNESSEE(-11)overalabama, over 45--tesing this 7 we get TENNESSEE(-4)overalabama, over 38. These teams have been playing some high-scoring games this year....Meanwhile, CAL(-23.5)washington has an over of 52.5. How much of this is because the PAC-10 is considered a high-scoring, passing conference, while the SEC is considered a defensive conference? Hmmmmmmmm...

Notre Dame is a 12.5 to 13.5 favorite over UCLA. This game's importance has little to do with UCLA's being any good. It has everything to do with the weakness of Notre Dame's schedule, especially the next few weeks. UCLA is the only team that even slightly resembles a challenge for the Irish before they finish the season at USC. Aside from West Virginia not having to play anybody, the great potential shame for this season is the vastly overrated Trojans and Irish backdooring their way into 1 or 2 BCS bids after having played nobody in particular other than Cal, Michigan (oops, that didn't quite work out), and each other...crushing. Notre Dame won't need to bust out the voodoo on these guys (though they easily could--dress him up in a bear suit, and clip jumper cables to his balls), but they may again fail to cover. ND pre-empted their voodoo/Santeria habits by loading their schedule with cupcakes....I don't consider either of these teams to be too reliable, so I'm not touching this one (insert priest-altar boy joke here). That'll do it for now.

Go Tigers! Beat St. Louis!

Go Irish! Beat Army!