Episode 15 - Know Your Mid-Majors: WAC

Today's the first installment of Know Your Mid-Majors.

First on our KYMM docket: the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).

In 2013-14, the WAC is home to the following schools:

• Cal State Bakersfield
• Chicago State
• Grand Canyon University (the first for-profit school in DI)
• Idaho (heading to the Big Sky Conference in July 2014)
• Missouri-Kansas City (Mike's alma mater)
• New Mexico State
• Seattle
• Texas-Pan American
• Utah Valley

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Episode 14 - Blackistone Discussion

Today, Mike and Tim discuss certain comments made by Around the Horn panelist Kevin Blackistone regarding Northwestern's blood-stained Veterans' Day tribute and whether it's appropriate to play the Star Spangled Banner before sporting events.

We actually begin today's show with Blackistone's comments.  Credit for the clip goes to ESPN.  We make no money from this podcast and include the segment for illustrative purposes only.

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Episode 13 - Bullying in Football

In today's podcast, Mike and Tim talk about the recent reports of bullying in the Miami Dolphins locker room involving second-year tackle Jonathan Martin and veteran guard (and known dirty player) Richie Incognito.

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Episode 12 - Know Your Mid-Majors Intro

On this episode of the podcast, we're introducing a sub-series called "Know Your Mid-Majors."

Mid-majors are the NCAA Division I conferences and schools outside of the big-time B(C)S conferences - ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC.  These are the smaller schools you likely have never heard of, some of whom have made impressive tournament runs in recent years - George Mason, Virginia Commonwealth, Butler, Wichita State, and so on.

There are 340 Division I schools in 32 conferences (this includes the aforementioned B(C)S conferences).  Many of these schools - which includes Mike's alma mater, the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) - are schools most casual sports fans have never heard of or knew were DI.  That's where KYMM comes in.

The conferences we will be highlighting in this series include:

• America East Conference
• American Athletic Conference (the renamed former Big East)
• Atlantic Sun Conference
• Atlantic-10 Conference (A-10)
• Big East Conference (the non-football schools of the former Big East that broke away and took the name with them)
• Big Sky Conference
• Big South Conference
• Big West Conference
• Colonial Athletic Association
• Conference USA
• Horizon League
• Ivy League
• Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC)
• Mid-American Conference (MAC)
• Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC)
• Missouri Valley Conference
• Mountain West Conference
• Northeast Conference (NEC)
• Ohio Valley Conference
• Patriot League
• Southern Conference
• Southland Conference
• Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC)
• Summit League
• Sun Belt Conference
• West Coast Conference
• Western Athletic Conference (WAC)

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Episode 11 - Orlando City Rant

"You have meddled with the primal forces of nature!  And you!  Will!  Atone!"
- Network (1976)

On this podcast, Mike has to rant against MLS' decision to admit Orlando City - a third division soccer team - into the first division, breaking many of FIFA's bylaws in the process, specifically (1) breaking FIFA's top-flight limit of 20 teams at any one time (this move would make 21); (2) allowing a third division team to jump into the first division while completely bypassing the second division; and (3) undermining the cry from North American soccer fans to implement - or at the very least start talking about implementing - a system of promotion and relegation.

Orlando City, congratulations, you've pissed one of us off.

There will be a discussion on promotion and relegation in North American soccer in an upcoming edition of this podcast.


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Episode 10 - NFL Midseason

Today, Mike and Tim review the NFL season as it approaches the midseason.

We also review our picks from before the season started and make midseason revisions:

	Mike's Picks	Tim's Picks	Actual (as of 10/30/13)	Mike's Adjusted Picks	Tim's Adjusted Picks
NFC North	Green Bay	Green Bay	Green Bay	Green Bay	Green Bay
NFC South	Atlanta	Atlanta	New Orleans	New Orleans	New Orleans
NFC East	NY Giants	NY Giants	Dallas	Dallas	Washington
NFC West	St. Louis	Seattle	Seattle	Seattle (begrudgingly)	Seattle
NFC Wild Cards	New Orleans Washington	San Francisco Washington	Detroit San Francisco	Chicago Detroit	Chicago San Francisco
AFC North	Cincinnati	Pittsburgh	Cincinnati	Cincinnati	Pittsburgh
AFC South	Indianapolis	Indianapolis	Indianapolis	Indianapolis	Indianapolis
AFC East	New England	New England	New England	New England	New England
AFC West	Denver	Denver	Kansas City	Denver	Denver
AFC Wild Cards	Baltimore Pittsburgh	Cincinnati Houston	Denver San Diego	Kansas City TBA	Cincinnati Kansas City
NFC Champions	Atlanta	NY Giants	TBA	New Orleans	Seattle
AFC Champions	New England	Denver	TBA	New England	Denver
Super Bowl Champions	Atlanta	Denver	TBA	New Orleans	Denver

In terms of end-of-the-season batsu game implications:

Mike: 4/8 on division leaders; 0/4 on wild cards (1 underestimation in New Orleans)
Tim: 4/8 on division leaders; 1/4 on wild cards (1 underestimation in Cincinnati)

Mike would take the batsu game.



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Episode 9 - NBA 2013-14 Preview

On today's edition of the podcast, Mike and Tim preview the NBA season and make their picks.

Division	Mike's Picks	Tim's Picks
Atlantic	Brooklyn	Brooklyn
Central	Indiana	Chicago
Southeast	Miami	Miami
Southwest	Memphis	San Antonio
Northwest	Oklahoma City	Oklahoma City
Pacific	LA Clippers	LA Clippers
Eastern Conf.	Miami	Indiana
Western Conf.	Memphis	Oklahoma City
NBA Champs	Miami	Oklahoma City

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