5 reasons why the UF will NOT repeat

The Florida Gators are the prohibitive favorites to win the national championship. The Gators return practically every player from a team that was dominant last year and lost by one point to an up and coming Ole Miss. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut they probably won’t win. There are 5 reasons below…

Reason #1

That being said, don't forget that the Florida Gators have never won a national championship without losing a game. They were 12-1 in 1996 and should NOT have played in the championship game as just a few weeks before their encounter with the dominant Florida State Seminoles in the championship game, they lost to the same Florida State team in the regular season finale. Then, in 2006 they demolished an outmatched Ohio State team that has built a reputation of being a slow Big Ten Team (Gator fans please don't forget that Chris Leak was the offensive MVP for the game and a major reason that Florida won this game...Tebow was on the team and contributed, but let's not forget Leak, plus Percy Harvin was the SEC's freshmen of the year), and finally last year the Gators beat the highest scoring team in college football history by 10 points. This was probably the most rewarding championship as they showed off their superior coaching, skill, talent, and game management against an exceedingly worthy opponent.

Reason #2

The Oklahoma Sooners last night reminded us just how fragile one's season is and how close yet so far away a national championship is. A BYU LB, in a routine, legal, clean, textbook tackle took the raining Heisman trophy winner out of the game last night at the end of the 1st half. An already challenging game quickly became an exceedingly unwinnable game. Despite having All-Americans at every position, the Sooners lost the game without their consensus #1 NFL draft pick and could be lose more games. Now, there is far too much uncertainty swirling around Bradford. What happens if Tebow is taken out of a game due to injury for an extended period of time? Perhaps a loss occurs or losses.



Reason #3

The Gators have a conference championship game in a relatively strong conference which means that they have one more opportunity to lose. That is, they have the “luck” of playing an additional game (against a good team of course) when most other teams across the nation do not have conference championship games, and if they do it probably won’t be against as quality of an opponent.

While this is undoubtedly a roadblock, the Gators benefit from a very reasonable schedule. Despite what the national media will lead you to believe, every SEC team does not have the hardest schedule in the nation or ever. To further clarify, each team in the SEC does not play the same schedule. And, the difficulty of schedule fluctuates tremendously. The 3 most difficult games that the Gators play are against an 0-1 Georgia Bulldog team, a perennially good LSU team, and an underrated Florida State team. This schedule is no better or worse than most any team in a power conference.



Reason #4

Karma!

Tim Tebow has been shoved down the nation’s throat repeatedly and been glorified from day one.

It all started during a game in "The Swamp" in 2006, the fans booed then starting quarterback Chris Leak. Leak at the time, was leading the Gators' charge to a national title (which they eventually won) and praising the freshman Tebow.

Last year, following Florida's lone loss last season to Ole Miss, Tebow made a post-game promise. During the press conference, a teary-eyed Tebow said, "''To the fans and everybody in Gator Nation, I'm sorry. I'm extremely sorry. We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Florida has never done here. ''I promise you one thing. A lot of good will come out of this. You will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. You will never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of the season. ''You will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season. ''God bless." This speech further solidified his place in the hearts of everyone and pushed his “situation” to epic unreasonable irrational ridiculousness.



Now there is a plaque outside of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium with this “speech”. Just 2 hours north, Bobby Bowden coached for 28 years and received a statue in front of Doak Campbell Stadium. It took Tebow a weekend to achieve this statue.

The media seems to be in love with Tim Tebow. On ESPN, Tebow has been called perhaps the greatest college football player ever. No matter what network Florida plays on any given Saturday, the announcers tend to slobber over this guy. In a Florida victory over arch-rival Florida State, CBS play-by-play announcer Verne Lundquist said of Tebow, "He's the kind of guy you would want your daughter to marry". Tebow's double-clutch jump-pass against LSU in 2006 is Fox Sports Net's ad for the SEC coming to its network. I can't count how many times I have watched Tebow's mission trip to his native Philippines shown on ESPN. During a Florida basketball game against Kentucky two years ago, ESPN used Tebow for a spoof of College Gameday. Tebow walked into a locker room and hyped up ESPN basketball analysts, Hubert Davis, Rece Davis, Digger Phelps and Jay Bilas as a promo for the show. During last season's BCS Championship Game, Fox's Thom Brennaman said, "If you're fortunate enough to spend five or twenty minutes around Tim Tebow, you're better for it."

Next, and probably most unfairly, you are only able to say exceedingly glorious things about Tebow. If you say anything other than praise, you are labeled as a hater, un-American, evil, unobjective, or a person with an agenda.

Earlier this month Florida State's Bobby Bowden made a comparison to a former Heisman winner. Bowden claimed that Tebow was not a good as former Seminole Charlie Ward. Ward led Florida State to the 1993 National Championship in football and the Elite Eight in basketball. He was labeled with the “unobjective” label.




After Tebow was awarded the 2007 Heisman Trophy, then Hawaii coach June Jones called Tebow a "System quarterback" after Tebow beat out Jones' quarterback Colt Brennan. He was labeled with the “hater” label. June Jones can’t have an opinion against common accepted belief. His quarterbacks or Mike Leach’s quarterbacks can be labeled as system quarterbacks, but Coach Urban Meyer’s QBs cannot be labeled in the same manner.

Oklahoma cornerback Dominique Franks once again took a shot at the Florida signal caller. Franks claimed that Tebow would be the fourth best quarterback in the Big XII. He was labeled with the “agenda” label. Franks, like Jones, can’t have an opinion that is different from the fawning national media’s opinion. Nevermind, that Bradford and McCoy beat him in Heisman Trophy voting.

LSU defensive lineman Ricky Jean-Francois told the press, "If we get a good shot on [Tebow], we're going to try our best to take him out of the game." He was labeled with the “un-American” label. Tim Tebow taunts the Oklahoma Sooners last year gets a penalty and national acclaim for his passion and an excuse that he was a young kid in the moment while Jean-Francois is labeled as having the typical 21st century thug life, hip hop mentality.

Steve Spurier chose Jevan Snead as his 1st team quarterback instead of Tim Tebow. He received the “agenda, hater, unobjective, un-American, evil” label. A national uproar soon emerged because Tebow was not a unanimous choice for preseason SEC 1st teamer. It’s not like Snead is a scrub. He is maybe a top 5 NFL draft pick and posses unquestioned skills. His team did beat UF last year. Why was there not the same outrage in the Big 12 with the returning Heisman trophy winner?

Reason #5

Lastly, over the past four years, the conference that has produced more first-round draft picks (30) than any other conference is the ACC and not the SEC. Ok ok ok…the last reason may not be the most compelling reason, but I’m just sayn’



Sportynation, UF is unquestionably the favorite to win the national championship, but there are many many reasonable reasons why they won’t win it. It’s gonna be a long season. Only time will tell us what will, indeed, happen. I know what I’m rooting for.

This is my Minority Report.

Wild and crazy sports! Yeehaw.

Carlos Pena has more home-runs than singles in the 2009 baseball season!

In 1986 Danny Heap was the first player with the initial's DH to DH in the World Series.

There have been 3 Napoleon's in NFL History ANNNNND they have all played for the Oakland Raiders and Al Davis. Coincidence?!

The last two are doooozies. But first, Coco Crisp, Dick Trickle, World B. Free, and Majestic Mapp, and Scientific Mapp set the bar high with their "unique names." But, the next two culprits I mean athletes Usain Bolted that bar and set us back at least 132 years as a society and humankind.

A defensive back for the Ga Tech yellow Jackets is named I-Perfection Harris. Let that soak in for a second. First off, this guy has a hyphen in his FIRST name followed quickly by an adjective. Under no circumstance will his life be normal with this name. In fact, I am willing to argue that he is more likely to fail because of this name. Let's just say he is on a job interview and has I-Perfection Harris on his resume. How will that go over? It won't fly. Or, let's say he is in a bar, lounge, or club, and meets a girl. How many times will he have to say his name over the loud music and chatter before the girl finally understand him, and when she does understand him what happens next? Nothing. She will think that he is an absolute lune. What are his parents' name?! There names are Karen Harris and Michael Vassell. What went wrong? We may never know sporty nation. Geez Louise!

Lastly, we have Chief Kickingstallionsims a former Alabama State center. Sporty nation, this is one of the moments that one has in his or her life where he/she is speechless, puzzled, bewildered, and/or stunned. I am sitting in my apt with my mouth opened and my hand on my head. I just don't get it nor do I want to get it.

Sporty nation this is my funky Minority Report.

Usain...

After a clean start and the most incredible acceleration ever seen, Usain Bolt had redefined the boundaries of human potential with a sensational world record. How fast is 9.58? Carl Lewis, in his best world record, would have been a distant three meters behind. Maurice Greene, more than two. Tyson Gay ran the fastest non-Bolt time by any man and was never in contention. Gay’s 9.71 would have won every major athletics championship 100 in history (except Beijing) by a wide margin. Bolt’s unimaginable .11 improvement of the world record is by far the largest since the introduction of automatic timing. The place times for second, third, fifth and seventh were the fastest ever in what was certainly the greatest sprint race -- perhaps any race -- ever run. And Bolt appeared to ease up slightly before the finish. In the tribune, Prince Albert slapped his forehead in amazement...for good reason.

It was the biggest change in the record since electronic time was introduced in 1968. It came very close to the 9.55-second time that an American professor said Bolt would have run in Beijing had he run all out in the Olympic 100 finals.

At age 15 he ran the fastest 200m dash in history for his age, did the same thing at age 16 ,and finally at age 17, in high school, he ran the fastest time ever for his age and which was a sub 20 second effort. Guy has had natural talent since like 9th grade.

Bolt is like 6 foot 5 inches and 200 pounds. The top speed in the race for Usain Bolt was 30 mph. With a running start, Bolt would have run a football 40 in 3.1 seconds.

Sportynation, this my friends is an athlete not some meddling golfer. This is my Minority Report.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/22825103/vp/32439402#32439402

It's Vadertime no it's Mike Vicktime!

First off I am a SanFran fan. Shaun Hill will be the starting QB and Frank Gore will dominate the league this year. So that's that. I have not been an Eagles fan since the whole T.O. McNabb incident, but I will NOT root against them this year. I want them to excell and I want Mike Vick to be an integral part of there success. I'm not sayn' I'm just sayn' sporty nation.

Today, Chris Rock was on Dan Patrick's show and he had some incredibly insightful things to say see below...

Rock had interesting comments on Michael Vick. He said if he could interview him, he would ask him what dog-fighting meant to him growing up. Rock says these things are always relative. Rock said the Kennedy's were drug dealers. They sold alcohol during prohibition. But it doesn't seem that bad from a different perspective years later.

Rock said that maybe Vick grew up in a situation where dog-fighting wasn't so bad.

"Dog-fighting's very prevalent in the South," Rock said. Rock also pointed out that we hunt, and many people consider that wrong.

"Why is a dog so much better than a deer?" Rock asked. "I see no difference between a dog and a deer."

Rock said look at marijuana ... it's illegal now, but who knows. "In our lifetime, pot will be legal," Rock said.

"I don't think marijuana is any different than selling beer," Rock said. "We know there's more deaths related to alcohol than marijuana."

Rock said the NFL doesn't care about animal rights. That's not what this is about. "The ball is made of pigskin," Rock said. "They don't care about animals."

Rock says this is all about convenience. "We want to cite the law when it works to our advantage," Rock said.





Again, it's not about defending Vick, but rather truly thinking about happened. He made a huge egregiously heinous mistake, he lost hundreds of millions and two years of his life. However, it is reasonable to say that he received a punishment disproportionate to the crime. Two years of his life for his calculated mistake. Hundreds of millions of dollars for his calculated mistake.

What would have happened if he shot a lion or an elk or a bald eagle or caught a Manatee? What would happen if he ate a dog (it does happen)? What would have happened if he were white? Are these circumstances significantly different? And, how do you decide what is worse?

Culture, society, and the media are responsible for the outrage and his ridiculous sentence and penalties. Remember we live in a society of second chances, and Vick definitely deserves a second chance. Far worse members of society have received second chances.

I hope that things work out for the better. I hope that Vick is wiser and can make meaningful contributions to society. And, I hope that he is left alone an able to live his life like we all would want to be able to do. There undoubtedly are SIGNIFICANT racial undertones within the Vick case, and I'll be the first to point them out, but that is for a later date. I hope that these undertones can be minimized and we as a society can move in the right direction. I know I'm hoping a lot, but let's keep hope alive.

Sportynation, this is my Minority Report.

Justice!

Kill a person you get 23 days.

Kill some dogs you get 23 months.

Shoot yourself in the leg you get a minimum of 3.5 years.

It is an escalating scale my friends. Geez!

Indeed, there are extenuating circumstances and many things at play, but still, superficially, something just ain't right here.

The real question is...what will the suspensions be like from the Commish Roger Goodell?

Sportynation, this is my mini-Minority Report.

Further proof golf is NOT a sport.

Catriona Matthew won the Women's British Open by three strokes Sunday, capturing her first major title just 10 weeks after giving birth to her second child.

Noteworthy uplifting story Matthew is. She had a baby and won a major tournament. You can't do this in "sports" so soon after having a baby. What other "sport" is this possible? Track and Field? Basketball? Soccer? Tennis? The question is not whether you can play the sport after having a baby only 10 weeks ago (had a baby in May!), but rather or not you can play, compete, and ultimately WIN at the highest level. She WON. SHE WON!

Sporty nation, golf is not a sport. It is a highly skilled activity that is exceedingly difficult, but does not rely on athleticism. It is an activity where diet and exercise are not THAT important.

This is my Minority Report, and I have provided further proof.

Money buys Pennants

"You can't just buy championships" people argue in baseball...the Yanks have no chemistry and are the best team that money can buy, or the Mets are collection of overpaid players, or the Sox are contributing unfairly to outrageous MLB salaries, or the Cubs just pay a lot of money to not win are simple minded and asinine. Money buy opportunity and wins. The Florida Marlins are an anomaly, an outlier, and a product of luck.

Currently, 9 of the top 10 payrolls in baseball are in first place or playoff contention with the Mets being out of it due to a plethora of injuries to its best players . While 4 of the bottom 5 payrolls are in last place by an average of 20 games.

The MLB chemistry issue is overblown. Baseball is an individual sport masquerading as a team sport. It's reasonable to argue that winning uplifts morale and is positively correlated with chemistry. So, spend money, get good players, and you increase your chances of winning. Don't spend money and pray that you get lucky with a young player. Money is the most reasonable, tangible factor involved in constructing a winning team.



Any and every team can spend more or less than they currently spend. Indeed, all teams can't spend the same amount of money, but they all definitely can spend significantly more or less than they currently do. It's just many owners would rather not spend money on payroll and would rather pocket the money.

Sportynation, this is my Minority Report.