New Batsu Game Rule: Timing is Everything

In regards to Ryland's adjusted picks for the recently completed NFL season, Tim filed a protest over the timing of the picks.

Mike and Tim both made their adjustments during a podcasting session in early November - specifically, the one held at Chappell's Restaurant and Sports Museum.  Ryland was unable to make that session due to other commitments - but he did have the opportunity to turn in adjustments.

He did so shortly after the season had officially ended - and after the results were initially published.

After discussion, we have decided that in the future:

- Pick adjustments must be completed within three weeks of the podcast recording session, and be published either on the Blogspot page and/or verbally on the podcast.  Anything submitted after three weeks will not be accepted.

- This only applies to NFL and MLB picks, as they are the only two sports where midseason pick adjustments are made.

Episode 126 - 2014 Batsu Game Review

Today's a review of all of the batsu games issued during 2014, including any that were issued in 2013 (which weren't completed until 2014 for a number of reasons).

A friendly reminder: "Batsu game" (or "punishment game") is a common feature in Japanese comedy.  When someone loses a bet, he/she is entitled to one of these.

How the batsu game became a feature on this podcast: Mike is a fan of Japanese comedy, specifically Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende, which is famous for its batsu games.

The podcast does have some rules governing batsu games:

1. Nothing that will cause permanent physical harm (the Japanese versions are notorious for causing physical harm).
2. "Sloppy seconds" - once a theme has been used two consecutive times, that theme can no longer be used; if a "banned" theme re-surfaces, the batsu game issuer is instead issued a "sloppy seconds" batsu game.
3. Free pass - everyone gets one free pass each calendar year, and can use it at any time during said year.

In 2013 and 2014, fourteen batsu games have been issued:
- 10 issued to Mike
- 4 issued to Tim

So, sit back and enjoy this trip down batsu memory lane.



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NFL Prediction Check

So, those NFL picks Mike, Tim and Ryland made? Here's how they did:

Division	Mike's Picks	Tim's Picks	Ryland's Picks	Mike's Adjustments	Tim's Adjustments	Ryland's Adjustments	Actual Results
NFC North	Green Bay	Green Bay	Green Bay	Green Bay	Green Bay	Green Bay	Green Bay
NFC South	New Orleans	New Orleans	New Orleans	New Orleans	New Orleans	Carolina	Carolina
NFC East	Philadelphia	Philadelphia	Washington	Philadelphia	Philadelphia	Philadelphia	Dallas
NFC West	Seattle	Seattle	Seattle	Arizona	Seattle	Seattle	Seattle
NFC Wild Cards	Chicago St. Louis	Chicago San Francisco	Philadelphia San Francisco	Dallas Detroit	Detroit Arizona	Dallas Arizona	Detroit Arizona
AFC North	Cincinnati	Baltimore	Baltimore	Cincinnati	Baltimore	Baltimore	Pittsburgh
AFC South	Indianapolis	Indianapolis	Indianapolis	Indianapolis	Indianapolis	Indianapolis	Indianapolis
AFC East	New England	New England	New England	New England	New England	New England	New England
AFC West	Denver	Denver	Denver	Denver	Denver	Denver	Denver
AFC Wild Cards	Baltimore San Diego	NY Jets San Diego	Houston San Diego	Pittsburgh Miami	San Diego Cincinnati	Houston Pittsburgh	Cincinnati Baltimore

Mike's Picks: 7/12
Tim's Picks: 6/12
Ryland's Picks: 6/12
Mike's Adjustments: 9/12
Tim's Adjustments: 9/12
Ryland's Adjustments: 10/12

Batsu Teams (Winning the Super Bowl)
Mike (both sets): New England
Tim (original): Seattle
Tim (adjusted): New England
Ryland (original): San Francisco
Ryland (adjusted): New England

The playoffs await Mike and Tim...

UPDATE: Ryland just turned in his adjusted picks, and the results were updated.

As a result, Ryland's sets of picks now cancel out, so he's safe in that regard.  However, he is still due a batsu game because of his initial San Francisco pick.  Tim will wind up getting the batsu game for his original picks.

Episode 125 - Christmas Wish Lists

Happy Holidays from the Winning Side Coaches!

Mike and Tim discuss what their Christmas wish lists are, in terms of sports.

Click here to download.

Episode 124 - Know Your Football Clubs: Germany

Today is Know Your Football Clubs, German edition.

Interesting facts about German football clubs: (a) they usually are part of much larger all-encompassing sports clubs that will field teams in all sorts of different sports, and (b) with two very notable exceptions, all German clubs are required to be 50%+1 fan owned.

Also, neither Mike nor Tim speak German, so please do not crucify us if we get the club names' pronounciation wrong.

Clubs we focused on in today's discussion:

Bayer 04 Leverkusen	FC Bayern Munich	Borussia Dortmund	Borussia Monchengladbach
Dresdner SC	Eintracht Frankfurt	Hamburger SV	1. FC Kaiserslautern
1. FC Koln	1. FC Nurnberg	FC Schalke 04	VBF Stuttgart
SV Werder Bremen	VFL Wolfsburg

Clubs we mentioned in passing:

TSV 1860 Munich	Fortuna Dusseldorf	SpVgg Greuther Furth	Hannover 96
Hertha BSC	Karlsruher FV	1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig	Rot-Weiss Essen
BFC Viktoria 1889	FSV Frankfurt	FC St. Pauli	Waldhof Mannheim
Stuttgarter Kickers

Next time: we finish Europe's Big 4 with Italy.



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Episode 123 - Where Are They Now? 9

Tim has yet another Where Are They Now? segment, one that invokes a certain image for Mike.

Today's athletes of discussion are:

• Leon Lett (product of Emporia State and subject of NFL blooper reels)
• Bernard King
• John Daly (the image mentioned above involved this pro golfer)
• Gaylord Perry (Baseball HOF'er and notorious spitballer who played briefly for the KC Royals)

The "ghost" of Jay Mariotti has been invoked.  Listen for more details.

Click here to download.

1st 2014-15 NFL Batsu Game is Decided

At the beginning of the 2014-15 NFL season, Ryland picked San Francisco to win the Super Bowl.

As of December 14 - with two weeks to go in the regular season - the team Mike refers to as simply "THAT team" are officially eliminated from playoff contention.

Ryland, BATSU GAME!

Ryland's punishment will be announced at a later time.

Episode 122 - 2014-15 Bowl Picks

It's Bowl Season again.  Mike and Tim make their bowl picks.

This year's bowl season is complicated somewhat by the newly instituted College Football Playoff.

If you would like to challenge the WSC on their picks, feel free to join our Yahoo Sports pool.  Click here to sign up.

Now, for our picks:

Bowl Game	Mike's Picks	Tim's Picks	Diff
New Orleans	Louisiana-Lafayette	Nevada	X
New Mexico	UTEP	Utah State	X
Las Vegas	Utah	Colorado State	X
Idaho Potato	Western Michigan	Western Michigan
Camellia	South Alabama	Bowling Green	X
Miami Beach	BYU	BYU
Boca Raton	Marshall	Marshall
Poinsettia	Navy	San Diego State	X
Popeyes Bahamas	Western Kentucky	Central Michigan	X
Hawaii	Fresno State	Rice	X
Heart of Dallas	Illinois	Louisiana Tech	X
Quick Lane	Rutgers	Rutgers
St. Petersburg	North Carolina State	Central Florida	X
Military	Cincinnati	Cincinnati
Sun	Duke	Arizona State	X
Independence	South Carolina	South Carolina
Pinstripe	Boston College	Boston College
Holiday	USC	USC
Liberty	Texas A&M	West Virginia	X
Russell Athletic	Clemson	Clemson
Advocare V100 Texas	Arkansas	Arkansas
Music City	Notre Dame	LSU	X
Belk	Georgia	Georgia
Foster Farms	Stanford	Stanford
Outback	Auburn	Wisconsin	X
Citrus	Missouri	Minnesota	X
Armed Forces	Pittsburgh	Houston	X
TaxSlayer	Tennessee	Iowa	X
Alamo	UCLA	UCLA
Cactus	Washington	Washington
Birmingham	Florida	Florida
GoDaddy	Toledo	Toledo
Big Bowls
Chick-fil-A Peach	Ole Miss	TCU	X
Fiesta	Arizona	Arizona
Orange	Mississippi State	Mississippi State
Cotton	Baylor	Baylor
Rose Bowl*	Florida State	Oregon	X
Sugar*	Alabama	Ohio State	X
College Football Championship** based on the picks made on this podcast	Florida State	Oregon	X

This will be determined by overall picks.  Loser gets batsu.



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Episode 121 - UEFA Champions League Review and Tim's Batsu Game

Today, we review the group stage of the UEFA Champions League and announce Tim's batsu game (for losing in both overall picks and losing his champion, Liverpool).

Tim's batsu (remember, it was going to be Boston-themed): go to a karaoke bar and perform a song by Boston's own New Kids on the Block.

After the recording session, Tim did go through with his punishment.  Click here to hear which song he chose to sing.

Fair use: We open with Gerry and the Pacemakers' rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone" in honor of Tim's pick.



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UEFA Champions League 2014-15 Prediction Check

How did the guys do with their UEFA Champions League group stage picks?

Group	Mike's Order	Tim's Order	Actual Finish
Group A	Atletico Madrid Juventus Olympiacos Malmo	Atletico Madrid Juventus Olympiacos Malmo	Atletico Madrid Juventus Olympiacos Malmo
Group B	Real Madrid Liverpool Basel Ludogorets Razgrad	Real Madrid Liverpool Basel Ludogorets Razgrad	Real Madrid Basel Liverpool Ludogorets Razgrad
Group C	Bayer Leverkusen Benfica Zenit St. Petersburg Monaco	Bayer Leverkusen Benfica Monaco Zenit St. Petersburg	Monaco Bayer Leverkusen Zenit St. Petersburg Benfica
Group D	Arsenal Borussia Dortmund Galatasaray Anderlecht	Arsenal Borussia Dortmund Galatasaray Anderlecht	Borussia Dortmund Arsenal Anderlecht Galatasaray
Group E	Bayern Munich Manchester City Roma CSKA Moscow	Manchester City Bayern Munich Roma CSKA Moscow	Bayern Munich Manchester City Roma CSKA Moscow
Group F	Barcelona Ajax APOEL Paris St. Germain	Barcelona Ajax Paris St. Germain APOEL	Barcelona Paris St. Germain Ajax APOEL
Group G	Schalke 04 Sporting Portugal Chelsea Maribor	Chelsea Sporting Portugal Schalke 04 Maribor	Chelsea Schalke 04 Sporting Portugal Maribor
Group H	Porto Shakhtar Donetsk Athletic Bilbao BATE Borisov	Athletic Bilbao Porto Shakhtar Donetsk BATE Borisov	Porto Shakhtar Donetsk Athletic Bilbao BATE Borisov

Mike's Champion: Barcelona
Tim's Champion: Liverpool

Advancing to Knockout Phase (1st and 2nd place finish):
Mike: 12/16
Tim: 11/16

Tim gets the batsu game for his picks.  He also has the already announced batsu game for losing his champions (Liverpool).  We will discuss before tonight's podcast recording how this will be assessed.

UEFA Champions League: Liverpool out

We will publish the full results of our picks for the UEFA Champions League group stage tomorrow.

Today, however, one of us lost their champions.

Final standings in Group B:

1. Real Madrid 18 points (6W, 0D, 0L)
2. Basel 7 points (2W, 1D, 3L)
3. Liverpool 5 points (1W, 2D, 3L)
4. Ludogorets Razgrad 4 points (1W, 1D, 4L)

The top two teams in each group advance to the knockout phase.  The third place finisher gets dropped to UEFA Europa League knockout phase.

Tim's pick to win the 2014-15 UEFA Champions League: Liverpool.

Tim, BATSU GAME!

Group stage play ends tomorrow with Mike and Tim tied.  Mike can still win in picks depending on what happens in Group G: Schalke 04 have to beat Maribor, while (irony alert) Chelsea have to beat Sporting Portugal.

Mike's champions (Barcelona) are through to the knockout phase.

Episode 120 - Why the Big 12 Got Hosed in the College Football Playoff

Regular listeners of the WSC podcast know that Mike is a huge non-fan of the Big 12 Conference.

Apparently, he's not alone.

The College Football Playoff has set the field for the first ever college football playoff.  With only 4 teams able to participate in this playoff and 5 "power" conferences participating, you know one conference will be on the inside looking in.

Here are the first ever playoff matchups:

1 Alabama (SEC) vs. 4 Ohio State (Big Ten)
2 Oregon (Pac-12) vs. 3 Florida State (ACC)

The first two teams out: 5 Baylor and 6 Texas Christian, both of the Big 12.

The committee responsible for setting the playoff field came back with two very compelling reasons to exclude the Big 12:

1. lack of a conference championship game due to the conference being 2 schools shy of the NCAA rule requiring 12 schools to stage such a game
2. weak nonconference scheduling

Mike shares his thoughts on the subject while attempting to abide by Wheaton's Law.



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