by Nicholas Cicale (@nickcicale)
91-71
Heading into this season, I can say a lot of the same things I said this time last year about the Dodgers, but they carry different sentiments now. I think the upside for the team is similar, but it’s a lot less certain to happen. (more…)
by Nicholas Cicale (@nickcicale)
The lists are a bit longer than usual because I liked a lot that came out this year, but here are my favorite Alternative, Hip-hop, and Pop songs from 2015. (more…)
by Nicholas Cicale (@nickcicale)
We’re one week away from knowing the answer.
Oklahoma is standing at #3 right now, but remember that their season is over. They won’t have any more chances to earn points because the Big 12 doesn’t have a championship game, and playing only 12 games instead of 13 will always hurt teams in the Big 12. A team can’t get credit for a game they don’t play.
This mean that the winner of Iowa vs Michigan State, as well as Clemson if they win the ACC should pass Oklahoma pretty easily.
Stanford also has a chance to squeak by Oklahoma (or even Alabama if they lose to Florida) if they take care of business in their game against USC.
The only other team that has an outside chance of cracking the top four is North Carolina. Doing the unthinkable and beating Clemson won’t be enough, but if they win and Stanford loses, they’ll have a shot.
Update 11/29 2:50 p.m.: I double checked and went through every team’s points again for the whole season to make sure I had the math right. I found a few half point errors here and there, and as a result, Oklahoma moved down from #2 to #3, and Michigan and Northwestern swapped positions. Everything else stayed put.
by Nicholas Cicale (@nickcicale)
There are only two weeks left in the college football season, but they’re the most important of the year and could cause the most movement in the ranks.
Rivalry week will bring up key games between ranked teams: Florida vs. FSU, Notre Dame vs. Stanford, Baylor vs. TCU, Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State, Ohio State vs. Michigan, UCLA vs. USC, Texas A&M vs LSU, and Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State. Also, one-loss Navy and Houston will square off to see which team was the best of the mid majors this season, and the winner will most likely find themselves in the top 25 at season’s end.
The most notable losses this week were Ohio State and Oklahoma State, but former undefeated teams that lost to games against their conference’s toughest competition. Oklahoma State still has an outside chance if they take care of business against Oklahoma, and some of the team’s ahead of them fall. Ohio State needs a lot of help from things out of their control and would have to win against two really difficult opponents to jump up into the top 4. It could happen, but it’s highly unlikely.
One team to keep an eye on is North Carolina. They haven’t lost since the first week of the year, and if they can somehow upset Clemson in two weeks, they would have a really strong resume. Probably not top-4 worthy, but it’s cool to see a new face near the top.
by Nicholas Cicale (@nickcicale)
There are only three weeks of games left before the College Football Playoff, but there is still plenty of time for things to change near the top of the polls with rivalry week and conference championship games on their way.
One rank I would like defend is Ohio State at 12. I know they’re defending champions and they’re undefeated, but the best two teams they’ve played this season are Minnesota and Penn State, neither of which are all that impressive, and they haven’t completely blown out the weak teams they’ve been up against either. This shows that these ranks are doing their job: to grade a teams based on what they’ve done so far this season, and not to factor in their preseason perception. Also, just because Ohio State is ranked 12 doesn’t mean they’re far out of the playoffs. Their last three games will be against Michigan, Michigan State, and Iowa in the Big 10 Championship game, and if they win all three, there’s no way they get left out.
Another similar situation has been happening in the Big 12. The top teams in the Big 12 were all lower than their record would probably indicate for the majority of this season because they all scheduled their hardest games the last three weeks of the season. Therefore, even with one loss already, Oklahoma, TCU and Baylor have a chance to really jump up the rankings if any of them go through these last three games unscathed. That would, however, require them to beat undefeated Oklahoma State, who’s the best chance for the conference to cement themselves in the playoff picture.
The New York Yankees (90-72)
Team Ace: CC Sabathia
Breakout Player: Michael Pineda
The Yankees have an extremely wide range of outcomes for this season, and I decided to go by the numbers with my favorite team (partly because I felt it was a way to be less bias, and mostly because it seemed really fun to do). Lets start with the facts; the Yankees had 85 wins last year, after having 95 wins in 2012. Their team ace, CC Sabathia had the worst season of his career (career worst 4.78 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, .3 WAR and in pitches per inning, and worst K rate since 2005). They suffered major injuries with four of their previous year’s regular starters, with Jeter, A-Rod, Teixeira, and Granderson all missing at least 100 games. The team was forced to mix and match any players they could find, and although they didn’t make the playoffs still managed to be surprisingly competitive relying on guys that were at or below replacement level. Everything that could have went wrong for the Yankees did in 2013. To me, this all means that 85 wins is a worse case scenario for this team this year.
by Nicholas Cicale (@nickcicale)
They’re finally here, my preseason power rankings for the 2014 baseball season! I know last year these kind of got out of hand, so I’m trying my best to keep them brief this year (just a paragraph) with a few exceptions. As of now, I’m expecting this to be about six entries long, so be on the lookout for my new posts over the next two week as we count from #30 all the way to the top.
Also, a new addition this year is my predicted records for each team, located next teach team’s name.
I know I haven’t posted one of these in a while but I figured I’ll do one for the end of the season. These are the best teams in the league right now, taking into account injuries and momentum (but not a lack of a head coach in some situations). Most of my opinions are based on which teams I think would win on a neutral field right now, meaning 1 would beat 2, 2 would beat 3, and 31 would beat 32. (more…)
My first basketball article ever! Hopefully they’ll be more to come. Ranking the best teams in the league to start the season. Spoiler alert: The Heat are number one.
I’m really happy that FSU will get another chance to prove themselves this week, but unless Oregon loses to Stanford I really don’t see them as number 2 in my rankings any time soon. Miami is a really weak undefeated team, and with VT looking like their usual selfs and Florida MIA, they have little chance to impress voters the rest of the year.
