ACC: After the blue beasts, it's anyone's guess
Posted: January 24, 2008
What you need to know going into the dark heart of Atlantic Coast Conference play:
The story
The war of all against all: The ACC is nasty from top to bottom and living up to its legacy as the conference most likely to melt your face off with fierce competition. Two beasts at the top watch while the rest compete for third place with savage ferocity.
Top gear: North Carolina
It's really just my love for Beaker that lifts UNC over Duke. Apologies -- I mean my love for Tyler Hansbrough, who really does bear a striking resemblance to the Muppet character, if the Muppet took a great liking to lifting weights and superb low post play.
Hansbrough is the one edge you can plausibly give North Carolina over their death-rival Duke. He's an inside presence that Duke cannot and has not properly matched. This is how you know you're reading an article about the ACC: I'm talking about how good North Carolina is by talking about how good Duke is, something that happens a lot when competition in the conference is this tight.
This year's Duke team seems so much more ruthless than last year's model, in good part because of a suddenly renewed interest in scoring (85 ppg) and a continued emphasis on pesky, hand-in-your-face defense (only allowing 64.1 points per game). DeMarcus Nelson, Jon Scheyer, Gerald Henderson and Kyle Singler all average double digits. And they don't play like the diapered, sissypants, prep babies that popular lore suggests Duke players are supposed to be.
But don't forget, we saw Cloverfield before it was released -- the beast was Pitt forward DeJuan Blair, who pounded the living hell out of the soft, nougaty middle of Duke's defense for 15 points and 20 rebounds in the Panthers' December win over the Blue Devils. Early season win, fluke, blah blah blah -- it's what I remember, and it scared any real willingness to buy the idea of a Duke championship out of me. The Blue Devils will struggle to shut down a truly effective inside-out attack, and North Carolina just so happens to have such an attack. The Tar Heels' range-finder, Wayne Ellington, provides the outside portion of the equation, and Ty Lawson can slash inside, where he's free to dish nearby to Hansbrough or out to Ellington.
But at the end of the day, any and all discussions of ACC supremacy go through Duke and UNC, and when the two face off in the little hypothetical dream arena in my head, Singler versus Hansbrough is the deciding matchup. For now, Hansbrough wins that matchup easily, no matter how many times Greg Paulus comes in to help with drama lessons.
And no one should be dissuaded by North Carolina's loss to Maryland: Beating teams they are not supposed to beat while losing the easy games is Maryland's specialty. (Plus, UNC's 38 percent shooting that day would do in just about any team.) That leads us to ...
Team of intrigue I: Maryland
Are you a prestigious basketball program looking for a surprise sledgehammer to the skull in the middle of your schedule? Enter Maryland, the Sweeney Todd of ACC teams, happy to make you comfortable, ease your mind and then turn you into sausage unexpectedly. Maryland can't beat Ohio and American, but they can play the part of master heckler in the ACC, kneecapping the UNCs while losing to the Virginia Techs of the conference.
Plus, their leading scorer is named Greivis Vasquez, an absolutely awesome name for a Bond villain. You must like that.
Team of intrigue II: Clemson
After the monsters in blue at the top of the ACC, the rest of the conference is so blasted hard to sort out because the middling-to-good teams are so similar. Each is capable of reaching up at any point and stunning a better team, but each is also capable of dropping games to the midgets of the college basketball world on an off night.
For example: Boston College. Pros: The Eagles beat Maryland and Miami. Cons: They lost to Providence, Massachusetts and -- hold onto your knickers -- Robert Morris. Or Virginia Tech, who beat Maryland and Virginia (clap clap clap) but coughed up losses to Georgia Tech and Penn State (rain of boos.)
If you have to pick one team to eyeball in the upper-mid tier of the ACC, consider Clemson. The Tigers have "quality losses" -- they came within two points of beating North Carolina, fell to Duke at Cameron and lost by three to a decent Mississippi team. In the ACC, they already have beaten Wake, North Carolina State, and a physical Florida State squad.
K.C. Rivers is scoring 15.6 ppg, but the Tigers also have depth, and they seem to be the safest bet should you want to put your chips on someone other than the conference's big boys.
Of course, given the ACC's intense competition from top to bottom, you could always start blindly guessing. At this point in the season, such bets are likely to yield the same results in a conference as vicious as this year's ACC. Given the odds of one team emerging from the wide middle of the conference, you might be better off investing your money in a safer wager -- you know, like betting which raindrop is first down the pane, or on a random hound at the dog track, for example.
Spencer Hall, under the alias Orson Swindle, writes and edits the college football blog Every Day Should Be Saturday and is a contributing writer to Sporting News.
(c) 2008 SportingNews.com
2007 sports world turned upside down by history, scandals
Michael Christopher
Assistant Sports Editor
The world of sports in 2007 was filled with lots of different emotions, but the thing most sports were filled with was scandal. The entire sports world could be best be summarized by criticism. All sports had some way, shape or form of criticism in their respective sport and made each fan scratch his or her head and want to reevaluate their love for what they thought was a clean and respectable sport.
As a sports fan and follower, I was surprised to learn not just one, but most of the sports I enjoyed had some kind of fault to it. If it wasn't one sport, it was another.
Fighting, cheating, betting, spying, taping, asterisks, record breaking, lying, dying and don't forget dog fighting - were just a few of things that happened in the sports world in 2007.
Even on the international level, there were scandals. Former track star Marion Jones and 2007 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis were found guilty of doping and using steroids to accomplish their feats.
Former England soccer player David Beckham thought coming to America might be easier, but found out criticism is not too far behind, wherever you may go. He received criticism from both Americans and his own countrymen that his time was done and felt he couldn't bring popularity to the sport in America.
Records seemed to be another issue of concern as we saw Hank Aaron's 755 career home run record drop down to second behind the controversial and alleged steriod-using Barry Bonds of the San Franciso Giants. Baseball itself took a step back and may never recover after George Mitchell came out with his Congress-led investigation about steroids and players who supposedly used steroids throughout their career.
Bonds' new career home run record, which some sports fans consider to be the most sacred in American culture, is now being questioned as to whether he himself should get in the Hall of Fame and whether the record should have an asterisk on it because of the steroid investigation and his involvement. Every fan of baseball started to questioned how far back scandals have gone back in what is considered "America's game." The love for the game and the players themselves have now been questioned. The whole steroid issue has brought questions about how and who our future generations can look up to.
Most Americans nowadays would consider the National Football League as the most popular sport in America. Former Virginia Tech and Atlanta Falcons quarterback violated animal cruelty laws and was involved with one of sport's most horrific and violent events in sporting news history when it was discovered he was a major player in a dog fighting operation. The superstar athlete who was looked up to as a hero by many younger kids, now is the most hated man by PETA.
The incident caused many sports fans to again re-evaluate issues and concerns about the sport and its players. Pacman Jones' involvement with shootings and the tragic death of Sean Taylor showed football had a violent side to who and what some players were getting involved with outside the sport.
In the NBA, referees were betting on games and coaches were getting involved with scandals. Isiah Thomas of the New York Knicks was allegedly reported in a sexual harassment scandal with a Knicks employee. Players were changing and trading uniforms to begin or revive new dynasties. LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat continue to show their superstardom to become the next Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, while other players such as Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett signed with the Boston Celtics to begin a new dynasty and relive the good old days.
Even wrestling got into the act with former wrestlers dying or allegedly committing suicide because of supposed steroid and drug abuse.
Most of all, the best way to summarize the year of 2007 was by watching college football. Questions about what conference was the toughest in college football was answered when the Florida Gators humiliated the Ohio State Buckeyes in the national championship game and proved the Southeastern Conference is superior to all the rest.
The preseason polls came out and within a few weeks teams that never had reached higher than the top 10 suddenly became a contender for the national championship. However, the curse of No. 2 claimed many victims, including LSU, who is facing the Buckeyes in the championship game Monday night.
History was made as Hawaii's Colt Brennan threw his name in the NCAA Division I record books for most passing yards, throwing touchdowns and pass attempts in history. Before being embarrassed by Georgia in Tuesday night's Sugar Bowl, Brennan lost the Heisman race to Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, who became the sport's first sophomore to receive the award. Arkansas' Darren McFadden made the record books, although not how he would have liked, as he became the first player to finish second in Heisman Trophy voting in back-to-back seasons.
The year in college football proved anybody could beat anybody on any given day or night, as there were a lot of firsts. Appalachian State thrilled us with a win over then fifth-ranked Michigan at the Big House. The Hogs downed then top-ranked LSU in triple overtime in Death Valley, then watched Houston Nutt move to Ole Miss and Bobby Petrino leave a note with the Atlanta Falcons to call the Hogs late one night in Fayetteville.
The year 2007 wasn't all bad, though. We saw stories of hope and encouragement as Buffalo Bills' Kevin Everett walked after a paralyzing injury at the beginning of the season. Taylor, of the Washington Redskins, became only the second sports player in history to become posthumously named to an all-star team. Tony Dungy and Lovey Smith became the first two African-American coaches to coach in the Super Bowl, while the Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning finally got Super Bowl rings.
The Boston Red Soxs proved curses aren't meant to be forever as they swept the Colorado Rockies in the World Series, winning their second title in four years. Iroman and former Baltimore Oriole Cal Ripken was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame along with Tony Gwynn.
Florida and Ohio State proved if you work hard, good things can happen as both schools appeared in the national championship of both NCAA Division I football and basketball, with Florida winning both championships, a feat that had never been seen and another first in sports history.
Despite all the controversy, criticism and scandalism, we as sports writers and sports fans learned quite a lot. As a sports writerm I learned anything can and will eventually happen. As a sports fan, I learned to never underestimate your opponent and to play with heart. I think the most important thing I've learned overall was to believe in your team and stand by them through both the good and bad.
Criticism will come and go, but our love for a team and its players should only grow deeper as the years pass by. Tradition should live on and mistakes will be made, but the ability to learn and grow from them that make sports so great to watch.
Copyright 2008 Russellville Newspapers, Inc.
West Ga. hires Dickey to revive football program
Former Tennessee quarterback has 20 year experience as coach
By STAN AWTREY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/12/07
West Georgia is betting that veteran coach Daryl Dickey can turn around its once-proud football program, which last season finished in the bottom third of the Gulf South Conference for the fifth time in six years.
Dickey, who was hired Wednesday, brings nearly 20 years of college coaching experience to West Georgia, a school that last year voted to build a 9,000-seat on-camp stadium that is scheduled to open in 2009.
"Once I was on campus and saw the direction the university was going and the opportunity was there for the football program, I got a good feeling," said Dickey, who didn't coach in 2007 after his contract was not renewed at Florida State.
Dickey said his first priorities are hiring a staff and recruiting. Given the late nature of his hiring, Dickey said the recruiting process is likely to last through the spring.
"We're interested in long-range results," he said. "We want to build a solid foundation that will last a long time."
Dickey wants to put an up-tempo offense on the field that can compete in the conference.
"We want to build a quality product with the goal of being in the playoffs every year," he said. "If we do that, we'll have to beat a lot of good football teams." Three members of the Gulf South Conference made the playoffs and Valdosta State is in the championship game. West Georgia won the Division III championship in 1982.
West Georgia last shared part of the GSC title in 2000, its last trip to the postseason. The Braves are 0-4 in the Division II playoffs.
Dickey replaces Mike Ledford, who was 18-45 in his six seasons as head coach. Ledford announced his resignation with three games remaining and finished the season 2-9.
Dickey played quarterback at the University of Tennessee and led the Vols to a 9-1-2 record as a senior in 1985, when he led the SEC in passing efficiency and was named MVP of the Sugar Bowl.
After a brief stint in the NFL and USFL, Dickey started his coaching career as graduate assistants at Tennessee and at Florida State.
He served as quarterback coach at Kentucky from 1990-93 and was promoted to offensive coordinator in 1994-95. He moved to Georgia Southern as offensive coordinator and quarterback coach in 1996.
In 1997 Dickey was named head coach at Presbyterian College. He remained for four seasons and compiled a 28-15 record, with an 8-2 finish his final season.
When Georgia hired Mark Richt in 2001, FSU coach Bobby Bowden hired Dickey as the Seminoles quarterback coach. He remained in that position through 2006, when his contract was not renewed.
Dickey did not coach in 2007. He kept his family in Talahassee to pursue "a business opportunity" and wait for the right coaching opportunity, which he said came at West Georgia.
"We want to do something long-lasting for West Georgia and for my family," he said. "We're looking to establish some roots and becoming involved in the community."
(c) 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Missouri vs Kansas College Football Betting Preview
Kansas 11/24/2007 04:10 PM GMT (FINDITT)
Kris Lazaro, expert handicapper at NFLSystems.com, has written a detailed prediction on the outcome of the Missouri vs Kansas college football game on Saturday.
The Border War has never been as big and as exciting as this Saturday as the surprising Missouri Tigers (ranked BCS #4) hook up against the upstart Kansas Jayhawks (ranked BCS #2) at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. This is one of college football's oldest rivalries, with this being the 116th renewal. Both Kansas and Missouri have each won 53 games in the series, with 9 ties. This Saturday's edition though will also have huge implications for both teams, as both the Jayhawks and Tigers seek a berth into the national championship game this January.
Missouri comers into this colossal matchup behind their star quarterback Chase Daniels. The success of the Tigers stems from Daniels' downfield vision as the quarterback is averaging 334.0 yards per game in the air. Statistically, the Tigers have averaged 42.5 points per game and allowing 23.0 points per game. The key to the Tigers' success on Saturday will be their ability to contain Kansas' equally explosive offense.
Copyright 2007, TransWorldNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
NA workers charged
BY DAVID LINTON SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Friday, November 2, 2007 6:12 PM EDT
NORTH ATTLEBORO - Town public works department employees are supposed to pave roads, sweep streets and check water meters, among other duties.
But police allege some employees, including a water department foreman, were involved in a football betting operation that included water and highway employees using town vehicles during working hours.
The alleged ring was broken up Friday when police arrested Michael A. O'Connor, 56, a retired park department employee identified as the ring leader, and three public works employees.
Police say they seized college and pro-football betting slips and an undisclosed amount of cash after obtaining search warrants for two personal vehicles, a town pickup truck and the desk of a water department foreman.
Police Chief Michael P. Gould Sr. said the investigation, which began a few weeks ago, was still ongoing and others might be charged.
The ring allegedly has operated for as long as 10 years, and investigators are trying to determine if employees in other town departments are involved.
"It's disappointing to me, personally, that we have town employees using town resources to distribute gambling apparatus," Gould said. "It would certainly be troubling to anybody, to any taxpayers to see this happening."
O'Connor was arrested Friday afternoon, allegedly while making his rounds collecting betting slips and cash while undercover detectives kept him under surveillance.
Arrested at work were Robert E. Barney, 46, a foreman at the water department; Kevin S. Leone, 39, a water department employee; and Robert L. Whooten, 52, a highway department worker.
Investigators allege O'Connor, who police say was living at 213 Mansfield Ave. in Norton, gave betting slips every week to Barney, who passed them to Leone and Whooten and other employees.
Barney, who has worked for the town for 15 years, collected the slips and money from the employees and returned them to O'Connor, according to police and court records.
When he was arrested, Barney, of 43 Robyn Road in North Attleboro, allegedly told police, "I didn't even make any money off those tickets," according to court records.
Leone, a Dedham resident, has worked for the town 11 years. Whooten, of 29 Fletcher St. in Plainville, has worked for the town for 22 years.
All the defendants were charged with taking or placing bets, a felony punishable by a three-year prison term.
Barney and O'Connor additionally were charged with managing a gambling enterprise and receiving bets.
O'Connor was scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Attleboro District Court.
The other three men were arraigned Friday afternoon and were released from court after pleading innocent. They declined to comment when approached by The Sun Chronicle.
They are due back in court Nov. 23.
The investigation is being conducted by Capt. Daniel Coyle and detectives Lt. David Dawes, John Reilly, Daniel Arrighi and Michael Elliott.
Town Administrator Mark Fisher declined to comment specifically on the allegations, citing the police department's ongoing investigation.
But he said the police chief has kept him aware of the probe as it unfolded Friday because it involved town employees.
"The police department has a job to perform whether it is private citizens or town employees. The law applies to everyone. I know they are doing what they have to do," Fisher said.
"This is an ongoing investigation, so it would be premature for me to comment on it right now," Fisher added.
Public Works Superintendent Michael Stankovich did not return a call from The Sun Chronicle seeking comment.
Copyright (c) 2007 The Sun Chronicle, Attleboro-North Attleboro, MA. All rights reserved.
Stern says refs broke gambling policies, but will not issue punishments
NEW YORK - David Stern acknowledged Thursday that more than half of his 56 referees had violated NBA policies about casino gambling, but said none will be punished because he felt the rules were outdated.
Instead, Stern said he is altering the policies, leaning toward allowing referees to gamble in casinos during the off-season - except for betting in sports books.
The league's strict gambling policies toward referees became public after the Tim Donaghy scandal. The NBA currently prevents its officials from entering the gaming area of a casino, or doing any betting at all except for going to race tracks during the off-season.
But Stern admitted he did a poor job of enforcing the policies, and with views toward gambling changing, decided he wouldn't "penalize people for behaviour that I'm about to change."
"It's too easy to issue rules that are on their faith violated by $5 Nassau, sitting at a poker table, buying a lottery ticket and then we can move along," Stern said after wrapping up the league's Board of Governors meetings. "And by the time I got through and I determined going into a casino isn't a capital offence ... I'm the CEO of the NBA and I'll take responsibility."
Stern also said Stu Jackson and Ronnie Nunn, in charge of monitoring officiating, will both have their roles altered. But he stressed they were being "expanded" rather than demotions - even though Jackson's job now will be divided between two people and the league will be "cutting down on some of (Nunn's) other responsibilities."
The commissioner stressed there is still no indication that any other officials were involved in illegal gambling activity, but practically all of them violated a league policy that Stern called "too harsh." That included anything from buying lottery tickets to taking part in poker games, betting on college football or taking part in NCAA tournament pools.
Stern ordered a review of the league's entire officiating program after Donaghy pleaded guilty to betting on games he worked and providing information to others to help them win bets. Though the investigation being conducted by former federal prosecutor Lawrence Pedowitz can't be completed until the federal investigation of Donaghy is wrapped up, it has already sparked some changes.
Stern said the league likely will begin listing the names of the crew of referees the morning of the game, and steps will be taken to admit when officiating mistakes were made.
Then there are the changes with Jackson and Nunn, who both came under fire after the scandal broke.
Jackson, the league's executive vice-president of basketball operations, will remain in that area, but sometime this season the league will hire a full-time referee operations executive. Jackson will continue to hand out on-court discipline and deal with many of the league's international ventures, but will give up his referee responsibilities.
Nunn, the director of officials, will spend more time on the road training younger officials. The league already has hired Bernie Fryer, who retired last season, to deal with the crew chiefs. Stern said Nunn told him that "it's more valuable for him to be on the road than to do his television show."
"We are broadening and taking more responsibility and we are doing it with the people that we have and we're going to add to them," Stern said, "but certainly it's not a reduction of responsibility."
Stern also reiterated that he is not currently considering any action toward Knicks coach Isiah Thomas or Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan in the aftermath of the ruling against them in a sexual harassment suit brought by former team executive Anucha Browne Sanders.
The trial did bring another change, however. All team personnel now will be required to set and meet minimum standards regarding sensitivity training and respect in the workplace.
The board heard what "wasn't a very uplifting report" about the situation in Seattle, where there has been no progress on funding for a new arena that would keep the SuperSonics in the city. Stern called himself an optimist but said his "optimism is waning" when it comes to the team's future there.
Donaghy's sentencing has been delayed until January, and Stern said he expects to learn further details about what the former referee did or didn't do, such as making calls to affect games, if he co-operates with investigators. But Stern dismissed the notion that this season is more important than any other because of the scrutiny the league has been under since the summer.
"We evolve, we respond, we grow," he said.
Copyright (c) 2007 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
College gameday
By Times staff, wires
Published October 13, 2007
Quotable
"I'd rather have all the advantage, and everybody else be terrible. That's fun. This is work." Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer on the parity in the SEC Eastern Division.
By the numbers
3-10 Iowa's record following a 5-1 start last season.
$2.84-million Annual salary of Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz starting last season.
6-0 Ohio State's record. The past two times the Buckeyes had such a start they finished the regular season unbeaten.
39.2 Penalty yards per game against Tennessee, among the lowest in the nation.
450.2 Nation-leading yards per game for Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell.
Five things
1. Arkansas has had 15 plays of 40 yards or longer this season - and Felix Jones is responsible for seven. Although Darren McFadden is the team's Heisman Trophy hopeful, Jones might be Arkansas' top big-play threat when No. 22 Auburn comes to town for tonight's game.
2. Kansas opened with home games against Central Michigan, Southeastern Louisiana, Toledo and Florida International, outscoring that foursome 214-23. It then knocked off Kansas State 30-24.
3. Wisconsin's Badger and the Green Bay Packers both lost last weekend. It was the first time either team had lost since the Packers fell on Dec. 3. Green Bay had an eight-game winning streak stopped by the Bears on Sunday while No. 19 Wisconsin had the nation's longest winning streak snapped at 14 games against Illinois.
4. In the past three decades, only three schools - Notre Dame (1978-80), Virginia Tech (most recently 1997-99) and Florida State (most recently 1997-99) - can say they've beaten the Hurricanes three times in as many years. Georgia Tech goes for three in a row today.
5. Oregon has the top-ranked offense in the Pac-10, averaging 529 yards.
No Bull, he got an earful
Orlando Sentinel sports columnist David Whitley wanted to find out if USF students had really caught the passion of Bulls football. He got his answer walking around campus this week in UCF gear. Some excerpts:
"The original plan was to tote a big flag around campus. I couldn't find one, so I settled on a couple of car flags.
"They attach nicely to windows but aren't exactly designed to fit the human skull. I hitched them under the cap and walked around looking like a man with flag antennae.
"In other words, a complete doofus. But it did the trick.
"'Wrong school!'
"'You know where you are, right?' ...
"I hadn't been to USF in about 10 years. Back then, it was a just a pasture where kids who couldn't get into Florida or Florida State drove around looking for parking spaces until the administration just handed them a degree. ...
"You know you're arriving as a football school when fans go Doberman at the sight of an opponent's colors. As I walked the impressive array of parking lots, the reactions ranged from curious stares to wild-eyed indignation.
"One helpful chap suggested I find the nearest emergency phone because I was about 'get my (bleep) kicked.'"
Don't let the grill fall in the water
On Saturdays in the fall, the waters of Lake Washington on the southeastern edge of the University of Washington campus get morphed into a tailgating phenomena like no other.
"For me, it's almost addicting," said Brandie Hassing, who organizes the boat program that brings thousands of fans to each of Washington's home football games.
"It's an adrenaline rush when the boats start to come in."
Every school has its own unique tailgating traditions, from lounging on the Grove at Mississippi to the Fifth Quarter at Wisconsin.
But Washington is one of only two venues in the country - along with Tennessee - where fans can take to the water and boatgate.
About 250 boats have rights to a spot on the docks just outside the east entrance of Husky Stadium. Some make a weekend out of it, camping out overnight, then walking off their boats, over the wooden planks and into the stadium.
Others anchor farther out in the lake and take a university-run shuttle boat to shore.
The novelty of boating to games draws a large number of out-of-town fans. Fans of Pac-10 schools that regularly make the trip to Seattle use commercial boats as an opportunity to reconnect.
"On beautiful days you have this whole lake full of private boats being shuttled in and you look up and see the stadium and start to hear the noise coming from the stadium," said Lane Hoss, vice president of marketing for Anthony's Restaurants. "You get into the stadium and you look out and you see Lake Washington and you see the mountains and you see all the boats and it's a spectacular view."
Who wins? It's all on the line
Bettors can forecast the outcome of a game more accurately than the polls that determined Wisconsin had the fifth-best team in the nation - right before the Badgers lost to unranked Illinois, said economist James Quirk, a retired California Institute of Technology professor and author of The Ultimate Guide to College Football.
The gambling line made the Illini a 21/2-point favorite. No. 8 Kentucky lost to No. 11 South Carolina a few days earlier; South Carolina was a four-point favorite.
"I'm a strict believer in markets," Quirk said. "The odds are doing a better job on this stuff than the polls are."
The betting odds "dominates these guys," said Fair, who examined 1,582 games between 1998 and 2001 for a paper called "College Football Rankings and Market Efficiency" published in the February Journal of Sports Economics. A combination of polls predicted 72.9 percent of winners, the paper found. The betting spread predicted 74.7 percent.
"Any information the models have, the market also has," Fair said. "The market seems to be incredibly efficient."
(c) 2007 - All Rights Reserved - St. Petersburg Times
|
