NFL
It's been a weird season for the shield in 2015. Carolina undefeated? Not even the most delusional of Panthers fans saw that coming. My Green Bay Packers going 6-0 and are currently fighting having a complete meltdown? The Patriots winning? Okay, everyone can expect that until Brady retires, but what about the Ravens? A lot of TV's experts were saying they were a dark horse Super Bowl team, and they have compiled 4 wins, and now half their team is sidelined. The Seahawks sucking was nice but now they're starting to get on a roll and are up to 7-5 and likely will be the second wildcard team. I don't think a lot of people expected Detroit to be as bad as they were to start the year and even less expected them to turn it around, which they did, but after losing Thursday on a hail mary to the Packers any hope they had is probably gone. I just want to take a second and say I think Matt Stafford is one of the most overrated players in the league. Announcers love to talk about his arm talent, but that arm misses his receivers a lot, even Calvin Johnson. He should never overthrow Megatron, just put it up and let him make the play, he's 6'5" and a freak athlete, I bet he makes the play. I honestly didn't expect the Minnesota Vikings to be seriously challenging the Packers for the NFC North, but also Green Bay struggling is helping that happen. I don't think Cincinnati will actually do anything in the playoffs, maybe win a game, but the AFC is New England's to lose, especially if they get their key injured players back. Going back to Carolina I'm also not sold on them, I know nobody's beaten them yet but I just don't see them making the Super Bowl, let alone winning it, but I could be wrong. One final thing is the NFC East, I think we all expected it to be bad, but not this bad, we could easily have back to back years in the NFC with a division winner under .500. Obviously the Romo injury is a huge blow to Dallas, and the Eagles are just a train wreck, though they still have a chance and beat the Pats today. Honestly I think Washington will win and then lose to Seattle (or Green Bay/Minnesota if the Hawks stay hot and get the first wildcard and GB or MIN lose enough games for that to happen) the Giants are just, I really don't know, they won two rings with good defense, and they don't really have that. I'll have playoff predictions for the NFL in January, also I may do weekly predictions as well, we'll try 'em this week and see how it goes.
College Football
First off, thank god Ohio State missed out, I could not have handled seeing them win back to back titles, though they wouldn't have had they made it. That being said I enjoyed Championship Saturday yesterday, Florida looked like they might possibly shock the world and make it a game, but they still couldn't figure out how to play offense. North Carolina hung with Clemson for a while, and USC played 3 solid quarters against Stanford before rolling over and dying in the fourth. Michigan State and Iowa did not disappoint at all (unless you go to or are from Iowa). Great game, even when nobody could find their way to the end zone it wasn't a boring defensive game, at least not to me. Then MSU goes on a 9 minute (!!!!) drive before scoring the go ahead touchdown to punch their ticket to the playoff. First of all how insane is a 22 play, 9 minute drive? Not even Wisconsin can do that and they can't throw, Alabama couldn't do that, nobody could, but MSU did and Iowa had Scott wrapped up all they had to do was make him touch the ground but they actually were holding him up and then he reached out and scored. Overall I was pretty indifferent to this season, the Badgers were mediocre, so I was just looking forward to OSU losing, and they did. The SEC was laughable but the big media people don't seem to want to talk about that, had Bama lost and no SEC team made the playoff the world might've ended. The committee may have put Florida in even though they were ranked 18 by said committee. Actually the easy solution would just put Stanford in and be done with it, but we don't even need to worry about it. So the playoff begins December 31, with (1) Clemson playing (4) Oklahoma and (2) Alabama playing (3) Michigan State. Right now I like Clemson to win, and MSU to upset Alabama, but those thoughts could change and I'll have official predictions later.
NBA
As I'm sure everyone knows the Golden State Warriors are incredible. 22-0 to start and they might not lose ever. I just want to quickly say that, as a huge fan of Steph Curry since I first saw him in his first game in the 08 NCAA tourney when I was 12, seeing him dominate is awesome. He is incredible and honestly already a lock for MVP and may be taking over as best player in the league right now. Other early observations is that outside of the Warriors and Spurs, the West is an absolute mess. I mean the Rockets have been disappointing, as have the Pelicans (though they were really unhealthy) but if you look at the standings (found here: http://www.nba.com/standings/team_record_comparison/conferenceNew_Std_Cnf.html ) there's a 2 game gap between the Thunder (third at 11-8) and the Rockets (eighth at 10-11) and some very underwhelming records, and I know its early and that could all easily change, but it's still surprising. Also the East is much improved so far all of the top ten teams are above .500, let alone the top eight, and when's the last time that has happened? I can't even remember. Though I still don't think anyone can stop the Cavs come playoff time, even though LeBron may have back problems/is losing his mind (see: him banning hover boards and having player only meetings and just treating his 13-7 team like they're 5-17 because he knows there is no stopping Golden State and he can't handle it) The Heat may be able to if they're healthy because they are playing great defense. Also I still like the Bulls to beat them if they are healthy, which is always an issue with them, but they may need home court advantage and it looks unlikely they'll get that now. If Derrick Rose can be a 16-18 point and 6-8 assist per night guy and be okay with Jimmy Butler being the number one option that will be good enough. At least as long as they keep playing good defense and can figure out their offense. Also quick shoutout to my Knicks not sucking this year and Porzingis dunking on the whole world to begin his career, all those Knicks fans from New York hated the pick and I was ok with it. (I'm from Wisconsin, always liked NY don't know why, and the Bucks always found ways to piss me off and I could never get behind them so I gave up on them a long time ago.) So my early finals prediction is Golden State vs. Cleveland and Golden State will win, probably in 4 but it won't surprise me if it goes 7.
College Basketball
Well after my Badgers tore my heart out by losing to Duke (who I also can't stand) they began this season by losing to Western Illinois, but they've been okay since then. But can you say...UPSET??!!?!? There has been many an upset early in this college hoops season, and you hear the experts talk about parity in college basketball and how far it's come in recent years and how they just really love it. Also it helps that the quality of players is higher across the board and the best teams this year are not as good as they usually are. I like North Carolina (really I am a big fan, again don't know why I just always have been) but I admit they're not as good as last years Kentucky, Wisconsin, maybe even Duke teams. Still I like them to win it all this year. Thats really it here, I'll have a lot more on college hoops throughout the year and my bracket predictions in March.
NHL
Haha I know nothing about hockey. See you in April when I'll again try my hand at Stanley Cup Playoff predictions.
MLB
Not a big baseball guy, wanted a Cubs/Bluejays World Series to see hella home runs, but that didn't happen.
Other
Shout out to the US Women winning the World Cup. Even bigger shout out to Alex Morgan, wasn't a huge impact player this summer, but she's still fine.
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