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.



Click here to download.

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.



Click here to download.

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.



Click here to download.

Episode 119: The List - Current Athletes Who Just Need to Go Away

On today's edition of The List, we discuss the many current athletes who we feel need to STFU and go away already.

Without getting into spoilers, we set up a final showdown between PSG's Swedish resident douche Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Baltimore Ravens resident punk Steve Smith.  Listen to find out who wins the (dis)honor of most needing to STFU.

This is a douche.

This is a punk.

Click here to download.