I will say that the most annoying thing for me the last few weeks has been the obnoxious retweeting by @espn_bigten.  The next most annoying thing has been the ads on the radio in Los Angeles regarding Time Warner Cable’s contract expiring with the ABC family of networks which includes ABC & ESPN, and the encouragement of TW subcribers to cancel and switch to a dish or another carrier so they do not miss USC’s game or UCLA’s game.

All that said, there are some good, ranked match-ups this weekend; and with so many non-BCS conference teams highly ranked, this weekend will be the litmus test of whether or not those rankings are deserved.  It is hard to argue where these non-BCS teams should be ranked when their schedules are deemed soft.  This season is more-so a waste of college football, as with the realignment of so many teams next year, anything that happens this year will be a one-off.

Thursday, Sept. 2 -

Pittsburgh @ Utah – Panthers

Southern Miss @ South Carolina – Gamecocks

USC @ Hawaii – Trojans

Saturday, Sept. 4 -

Illinois vs. Missouri – Tigers

Purdue @ Notre Dame – Boilers

UConn @ Michigan – Huskies

UCLA @ Kansas State – Bruins

Oregon State vs. TCU – Beavers

LSU vs. North Carolina – Tigers

Wisconsin @ UNLV – Badgers

Monday, Sept. 6 -

Boise State vs. Virginia Tech – Hokies

I’ve grown old on Federer. His level of consistant winning has rubbed me wrong. I am one who would wish for Andy Roddick to be able to get a few breaks and use his serve to beat Roger, but that was no longer an option a few days ago.

Maybe my affection for Pete Sampras, who grew up in my hometown, outweighs my desire for anyone to come along and beat his Wimbledon record.

Seeing Berdych for the first time late last week, I was pleased. He’s easy on the eyes, but aside from that he is watchable. His game seems very clean and to see him generate a fair amount of success on such a large stage is impressive. Tomas is who I’ll be cheering for Friday to get past the semis and into Sunday’s Wimbledon final.

to all the folks in downtown, if I can see you on tv right now, destroying property, breaking newpaper boxes, and trying to flip vehicles over, knock it off! Go home! You don’t belong in LA… what you are doing is not fun, classy, or in the spirit of winning.

Please trust that I am very tempted to answer an ad on Craigslist regarding some guy needing a date for game #2.  I, however, will not be making such a wager.  I’d be there already if going to a Lakers-Celtics NBA finals game was that important to me.  That’s the thing about life, you find a remedy.  If it is going to the game, you find the means, the cash, whatever. 

I’m looking for the Lakers to do this in 6.  The keys will be fouls, bench support, and points in the paint.

Anyway, if you are interested in taking me, a stranger, to any of the Finals games email me thru here or tweet me.  I’ll get dinner & 2 rounds of drinks.    Work with whatcha got.

Anyway, I digress, if any of you Jazz fans were at the game tonight wearing your “Fisher Lied” shirts (or any variation thereof), I wonder about you. I have heard questions about you, like people ask if you have a soul. Other questions range from uncertainty whether you don’t know what you are talking about or just thought you wanted to get on tv by wearing your trendy trucker hat and attempting to look pretty.

The only pretty thing I can find is pretty sorry. I know not all Jazz fans feel like Fisher broke his contract and handed back $8 million on a chance that he could win more rings with the Lakers, a team who was no where near willing to sign him at the time of the issues surrounding his daughter who is currently in remission from eye cancer.

I will not try to plead Derek’s case for him, you can do the research and talk to NBA insiders and analysts for the story if you missed it. I will say that Fish has been a classy guy. He’s a classy ball player and someone that can truely be considered a role model and mentor.

I don’t want to give more attention to the individuals who felt this was the appropriate way to display their feelings of Derek’s departure, but this is wrong, classless, tacky, and deplorable fan behavior that I don’t think Larry Miller would agree as a display of a true Jazz fan.

If you don’t know what I am talking about, go to 4:22 left in the 1st half of TNT’s coverage of the Lakers/Jazz game. Maybe I will post a pic later.

Big Ben met with Roger Goodell on Tuesday regarding the lastest incident in what seems to be a stream of shakey behavior since Ben crashed a motorcycle back in 2006 while not wearing a helmet. 

Many people with NFL opinions think that Ben may get a 2-4 game suspension to be levied by the league.  The only question seems to be will these be pre-season games or regular season games that the Steelers would be without their 2-time Super Bowl winning QB.  Different arguments range regarding the duration of suspension as substance abusers getting 4-games out while Ben never had charges brought against him criminaly.  I am thinking 4 games, regular season.  Substance abuse only hurts the person taking the substance unless this person then gets in a car, a la Donte Stallworth.  The charge of sexual assult is dangerous and should be treated as such.

I chose Butler because they are a great little basketball school out of Indiana.

I chose Butler because they are a friendly, hour-away neighbor of my alma mater, Purdue.

I also chose Butler because Purdue isn’t in this game.

I chose Butler because I am tired of Duke.

If Butler can change the tempo and not necissarily have the ball for more minutes, but make Duke work for EVERY point they get, Butler will win this game.

Donovan only has 1 year remaining on his contract, so seems like it is in Philly’s best insterest to re-negotiate with him so they can trade him away with more years intact.  Not many teams would risk money, draft picks and the like on a guy they will only have for one season.  It would be in Donovan McNabb’s best interest to put a trade approval clause in his contract, if he does re-negotiate.

The NFL draft is less than 3 weeks away with new QB talent looking ripe for the pickin’ too.

Tiger Woods will be having his interview for the Masters on April 5, and Dicky V over at ESPN is livid about it.  Dick Vitale gave numerous interviews earlier this week regarding his money maker, NCAA Basketball and all things Final Four, when he revealed his disgust for Tiger talking on what is such a big day for the National Championship game, and how he is taking the spotlight away from the kids.

Here’s the thing, if you are Tiger Woods and you really don’t have much more to say, but have to do a presser for The Masters, why not do it on a day that so much else is going on?  April 5th is the start of baseball and the finish of men’s college basketball, which would equal the best day to talk to the media.