Jivin,' Thrivin,' and Top-5'in'

That's Duke, baby! As of Monday's poll, we're back in the nation's top 5, and ready for more. Let it also be known that this marks the first time in history that the concept of 'jive' has ever been mentioned in the same context as Duke University. It's a new era. Before this, there were only some loose rumors that Coach K used to do the hand-jive from 'Grease' in front of his wrap-around mirror, but even that could never be proven. So get a load of the new face of jive:


Tonight we travel to Iowa State, who currently own a 10-3 mark on the year and can't be terribly far from the top 25. It'll be a nice road test before Georgia Tech this weekend.

Detour into:

The Futility Dream-Snatcher Bowl Challenge

Doesn't that sound like the name of an actual bowl, kinda? Today, Notre Dame announced that it has declined a berth in December 15th's Futiility Dream-Snatcher Bowl. They will be replaced by a makeshift team from the Arizona state penitentiary.

Anyway, the hope for .500 is still alive after Iowa's win last night.

Original goals that can be compared to a northern general's firm belief that the Civil War would be over in a matter of days:

25-9 straight up, 20-14 against the spread

Current marks that are sorta like an alternate future where the rebels burned Washington D.C. and started talking about advancing on Montreal:

15-17 straight up, 11-21 against the spread

I would like to point out, however, that in my Bowl Pool picks (you can read that blog here) I am 12-19 straight up. I had to make those picks before any games started, so if nothing else I have learned from the results of the games to the tune of a 3-game swing. BOOYA. Moral victory!

Tonight, I'm going to reverse another of my pool picks. I had Central Michigan, but so far this bowl season the MAC has looked terrible. They're 0-4, with a few bad losses and some close ones to mediocre teams. However, Central Michigan was the best team in the MAC, so could there be a difference? Let's look at their two losses. 19-6 to Arizona, who got whooped in a bowl game, and 31-10 to Boston College, who did the same. Any quality out-of-conference wins? Early on, they beat Michigan State by two. Otherwise, it's been all MAC victories, which as we know are now devalued. So what about Troy, their opponent? All three losses were big, but they were to Florida, Bowling Green, and Arkansas, all of whom looked great in bowls. They were undefeated in conference, including a blow-out of Middle Tennessee State, who also acquitted themselves nicely against SMU.

The underdog is 17-15 straight up this bowl season. It's incredible, but true. None of the stuff I mentioned above proves to me that Central Michigan deserves to be a favorite. So let's roll with the dogs. I like Troy (+4) both ways.

Not much else to mention today. I might live blog the Duke game tonight, but I also might miss the first part, so that's kinda up in the air. Later this week I'm going to make up for my college picks by starting an improbable 11-0 football playoff prediction run. I leave you now with Jon Scheyer's theme song, and wishes for a serene Wednesday.