Anchor Drop: Bowling for a title

Jan 10, 2023 - 1:12 PM

CP3 PBA Celebrity Invitational Charity Bowling Tournament Presented By GoBowling.com — Photo by Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images for Professional Bowlers Association

Good morning.

Optional Musical Accompaniment

Vanderbilt bowling went undefeated yesterday at the Stormin’ Blue and White Vegas Classic, where they’ll now face hated rival McKendree in the four-team championship bracket today. Action starts at 10 AM CT and streams on bowltv.com.

In news about lesser sports, basketball heads to Knoxville tonight where they’ll play Tennessee at 8:00 PM CT on the SEC Network. The Commodores managed to keep things close at Missouri on Saturday, but Tennessee unfortunately is one of the best teams in the country.

Meantime Chris Lee’s new podcast talks about, well, the 4,000 people at Memorial Gym for the SEC opener, in so many words.

Finally, college football’s national championship game was an indication of how big of a problem the sport has. No, this is a problem, and if you don’t think this is a problem them you hate the sport and want it to die a slow death:

This is why we kept beating the drum against playoff expansion. This idea of March Madness runs in college football is just totally disconnected from this sport. Champions really ARE almost predetermined based on talent. TCU could play Georgia 20 times and never win here.
— College Football Nerds (@CFBNerds) January 10, 2023

Your "Cinderella" will be a 2-loss Bama destroying TCU in round 1, rendering the regular season almost meaningless and crushing the small programs forever.
— College Football Nerds (@CFBNerds) January 10, 2023

I watched an NFL game on Sunday, and you know what I’ve never truly appreciated about the NFL? Aside from the higher level of play, things never seem predetermined. But these sorts of people, the ones who just hate that TCU was in the title game, are the people who actually don’t like the sport outside of 3-4 games a year.

(For the record, anybody who wants to score points about Cinderella should go back and look at what Georgia actually did to Tennessee. Or anyone on their schedule not named “Ohio State.”)

Bad Gambling Advice

Season to date: 77-83-3 ATS, 79-84 totals

South Carolina at Kentucky (6:00 PM CT, ESPN2); South Carolina +18.5, Under 132.5
Florida at LSU (6:00 PM CT, SEC Network): LSU +1, Under 139
Vanderbilt at Tennessee (8:00 PM CT, SEC Network): Tennessee -17, Under 132.5
Auburn at Ole Miss (8:00 PM CT, ESPNU): Auburn -2.5, Over 132