Episode 28 - Know Your Mid-Majors: Atlantic 10

Today's Know Your Mid-Majors is on the Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10).

This conference is the current home of recent Final Four participants George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth.

In the summer of 2014, Davidson College will be joining this conference.

Here are the schools of the A-10 for 2013-14:

• Dayton
• Duquesne (Mike can now confirm he does have relatives who attended this Pittsburgh school)
• Fordham (their Rams are the namesake of the NFL St. Louis Rams)
• George Mason
• George Washington (the most expensive school in the country, per Tony Kornheiser)
• La Salle
• Massachusetts
• Rhode Island
• Richmond
• St. Bonaventure
• St. Joseph's
• St. Louis (a Jesuit school; not to be confused with the public UM-St. Louis, which is a DII school)
• Virginia Commonwealth

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Props to American Soccer Future

If you missed our promotion and relegation discussion, no worries.  Another blog picked it up.

The blog American Soccer Future picked up the audio from our discussion for their audience with our permission and blessing.  You can check out their posting of the discussion at this link.

NFL Regular Season Finale

The NFL regular season is over.  So, how did Mike and Tim do with their picks, both original and adjusted?

Division	Mike's Picks		Tim's Picks		Actual
	Original	Adjusted	Original	Adjusted
NFC North	Green Bay	Green Bay	Green Bay	Green Bay	Green Bay
NFC South	Atlanta	New Orleans	Atlanta	New Orleans	Carolina
NFC East	NY Giants	Dallas	NY Giants	Washington	Philadelphia
NFC West	St. Louis	Seattle	Seattle	Seattle	Seattle
NFC Wild Cards	New Orleans Washington	Chicago Detroit	San Francisco Washington	Chicago San Francisco	New Orleans San Francisco
AFC North	Cincinnati	Cincinnati	Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh	Cincinnati
AFC South	Indianapolis	Indianapolis	Indianapolis	Indianapolis	Indianapolis
AFC East	New England	New England	New England	New England	New England
AFC West	Denver	Denver	Denver	Denver	Denver
AFC Wild Cards	Baltimore Pittsburgh	Kansas City no pick	Cincinnati Houston	Cincinnati Kansas City	Kansas City San Diego

Pick Set	Division Winners	Wild Cards	Over/Underestimations	Total Teams Correct
Mike's Original	5	1	0	6
Mike's Adjusted	6	1	1	8
Tim's Original	5	1	1	7
Tim's Adjusted	5	2	2	9

In case you're wondering about the Super Bowl:

Mike's original: Atlanta over New England - BATSU GAME DECIDED!!
Mike's revised: New Orleans over New England
Tim's original: Denver over NY Giants
Tim's revised: Denver over Seattle

Batsu games goes to:

• Mike for his original picks (6 correct vs. Tim's 7)
• Mike for his adjusted picks (8 correct vs. Tim's 9)

Pro leagues: Promotion & Relegation

Normally with this podcast (and corresponding blog), we don't publish others' materials unless we have a very good reason to do so. This is one of those times.

I just came across this video explaining the concept of promotion and relegation.  The video does a great job of explaining the concept to those who may not be familiar with the concept.

Also, since we recently devoted a podcast episode on the topic, it seemed appropriate to get an outside voice to comment on the issue.

Episode 27 - Know Your Mid-Majors: Missouri Valley

Today is Know Your Mid-Majors, and today's conference: the Missouri Valley Conference.

The Missouri Valley is the second-oldest conference in Division I (after the Big Ten) and spun off the former Big 8 Conference (now merged with a few Texas schools to form the Big 12).  It is also home to Wichita State, one of last year's Final Four participants.

The current members of this conference are:

• Bradley
• Drake
• Evansville
• Illinois State
• Indiana State
• Loyola Chicago
• Missouri State
• Northern Iowa
• Southern Illinois
• Wichita State

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Episode 26 - Las Vegas Sports Discussion

Should Las Vegas - the gambling capital of the United States, located in the middle of a desert - host a major pro sports team?  That the discussion Mike and Tim have in today's episode.

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Episode 25 - Where Are They Now? Part 2

Since the first installment of "Where Are They Now?" was a hit among us, we decided to do it again.

Today's athletes we're looking at are:

• Eddie Kennison
• Mike Piazza
• Mookie Blaylock
• Michael Johnson
• Jennifer Capriati

Here is video of Kennison's June 2012 appearance on KCPT's The Local Show:





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Episode 24 - 2013-14 Bowl Predictions

Mike and Tim look at the upcoming college bowl games and make their picks.

Since there is generally a lot of agreement between the two, we'll only list here the games Mike and Tim differ on:

Bowl	Mike's Pick	Tim's Pick
Las Vegas Bowl	USC	Fresno State
Hawaii Bowl	Boise State	Oregon State
Little Caesar's Bowl	Pittsburgh	Bowling Green
Texas Bowl	Syracuse	Minnesota
Fight Hunger Bowl	BYU	Washington
Advocare V100 Bowl	Arizona	Boston College
Chick-fil-A Bowl	Duke	Texas A&M
Heart of Dallas Bowl	North Texas	UNLV
Fiesta Bowl	Central Florida	Baylor
Cotton Bowl	Missouri	Oklahoma State
BCS Championship	Florida State	Auburn

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Episode 23 - Promotion and Relegation in North American Soccer

Mike and Jeff discuss the complex topic of promotion and relegation in North American soccer.  Why is North America (United States and Canada combined) the only place on the planet without promotion and relegation in their soccer pyramid?  What are the steps that need to be taken to make it happen?  Why does it need to happen?  It's an interesting discussion and the time to have it is now.

This episode begins with an audio clip from the 1976 film Network.  It is intended for illustrative purposes only.

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Episode 22 - UEFA Champions League Group Stage Review and Mike's Second Batsu Game

Mike goes solo and reviews his picks in the UEFA Champions League group stage.

Because of his picks, Mike gets a second batsu game.

Mike's batsu game is Five Words, which will be:

• bamboo
• banana
• gateau (a French word meaning "cake")
• heykel (a Turkish word meaning "statue")
• zhiraf (a Russian word meaning "giraffe)

The five words represent the five teams Mike was wrong about in the group stage: Chelsea, Galatasaray, Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain and Zenit St. Petersburg.

If you are unfamiliar with the original concept of Four Words, please refer to the Smoke Break web series.

CYA moment: the chants used in this episode are property of the respective property owners and used for illustrative purposes only.



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Episode 21 - Know Your Mid-Majors: Summit League

Today's Know Your Mid-Majors is on the Summit League - the former conference home of UMKC and many other schools.

The 2013-14 schools in the Summit League are:

• Denver
• IPFW (Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne)
• IUPUI (Indiana-Purdue-Indianapolis)
• Nebraska-Omaha
• North Dakota State
• South Dakota
• South Dakota State
• Western Illinois

Just prior to this recording, we learned that Oral Roberts (currently in the Southland) will be returning to the Summit League in 2014.

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Episode 20 - Hockey History: Original Six(es)

Mike and Ray discuss hockey history with the NHL's Original Six and what Ray calls the "Original Expansion Six."

The Original Six are:

• Boston Bruins
• Chicago Blackhawks
• Detroit Red Wings
• Montreal Canadiens
• New York Rangers
• Toronto Maple Leafs

The "Original Expansion Six" - which doubled the size of the NHL in 1967 - are:

• California Seals (defunct; the San Jose Sharks are considered the spiritual successor)
• Los Angeles Kings
• Minnesota North Stars (now the Dallas Stars)
• Philadelphia Flyers
• Pittsburgh Penguins
• St. Louis Blues

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Episode 19 - Stadiums: How Old is Too Old?

Mike, Tim and Ray discuss how old is too old in terms of stadiums?  We have the recent decisions in Atlanta to replace Turner Field (built in 1996 for the Atlanta Olympics) and the Georgia Dome (opened in 1992) within the next decade to thank for this talk.  We also touch on situations like the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis (opened in 1995) and Arrowhead and Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City (opened in 1972 and 1973, respectively).

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UEFA Champions League Review

How well did Mike do in picking the teams to advance past the group stage of the 2013-14 UEFA Champions League?  There are batsu game implications here.

We'll start with the top 2 finishers in each group.  These teams advance to the knockout stage.

Group	Mike's picks	Actual results	Number correct/Verdict
A	Shakhtar Donetsk Bayer Leverkusen	Manchester United Bayer Leverkusen	1/2 - SAFE!
B	Juventus Real Madrid	Real Madrid Galatasaray	1/2 - SAFE!
C	Benfica Olympiacos	Paris Saint-Germain Olympiacos	1/2 - SAFE!
D	Bayern Munich Manchester City	Bayern Munich Manchester City	2/2 - SAFE!
E	Schalke 04 Steaua Bucuresti	Chelsea Schalke 04	1/2 - SAFE!
F	Arsenal Borussia Dortmund	Borussia Dortmund Arsenal	2/2 - SAFE!
G	Porto Atletico Madrid	Atletico Madrid Zenit St. Petersburg	1/2 - SAFE!
H	Barcelona AC Milan	Barcelona AC Milan	2/2 - SAFE!

Correct picks (green): 11
Incorrect picks (red): 5

Next, let's look at the third-place finishers in each group.  These teams will be sent to the Europa League knockout stage.

Group	Mike's pick	Actual result	Verdict
A	Manchester United	Shakhtar Donetsk	WRONG!
B	Galatasaray	Juventus	WRONG!
C	Paris Saint-Germain	Benfica	WRONG!
D	CSKA Moscow	Viktoria Plzen	WRONG!
E	Basel	Basel	CORRECT
F	Marseille	Napoli	WRONG!
G	Zenit St. Petersburg	Porto	WRONG!
H	Ajax	Ajax	CORRECT

Correct picks: 2
Incorrect picks: 6

Here are the Batsu game implications:

• 11/16 make the knockout stage (need 8/16 to avoid) - SAFE!
• 2/8 correctly picking each of the 3rd place finishers (need 4/8 to avoid) - BATSU GAME!
• if BOTH of the top two in any group is picked completely wrong - SAFE!

For incorrectly picking more than half of the third-place finishers, Mike gets a batsu game.

Mike's final, by the way, is Barcelona over Schalke 04.  Keep an eye out for that.

Episode 18 - Where Are They Now?

Tim introduces a new segment called "Where Are They Now?"  In today's edition, Tim learns the whereabouts of five former athletes of note:

• Vinnie "The Microwave" Johnson
• Jim Marshall
• Sam Bowie
• Lenny Dykstra
• Tonya Harding

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Episode 17 - Mike, BATSU GAME!!!

Mike's batsu game for picking the Atlanta Falcons to win the Super Bowl is decided:

Mike is to wear a Pittsburg State (Tim's alma mater) shirt and sing the school's alma mater.

Stay tuned...



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