Sports Weekly:January 14th

No time for shenanigans lets get down to business.The divisional round of the NFL Playoffs were played Today..and yesterday and some games saw some upsets.The 1st game was Indianapolis returning to Baltimore to face the Ravens.In a game with no touchdowns and no safetys the Colts upset the Ravens 15-6 to advance to the AFC Championship for the 1st time in 3 years.The 2nd game on Saturday featured the Saints edgeing past the Eagles 27-24 to advance to their first NFC Championship in team history.Earlier today the Bears beat the Seahawks in OT 27-24 in a much better game than their October debacle.

Finally,just a few minutes ago the Patriots knocked off the Chargers(to the delight of no one)24-21 when Nate Kaeding's 54 yard kick came short to the right.So this sets up Patriots/Colts(again)usually this game features the Pats dominating and winning at home but this time its in the RCA Dome(bout time!)these two faced off on Sunday Night Football with the Colts winning 27-20 in Foxboro.The NFC Championship shall be Bears against Saints.The last time they met was last season in Baton Rouge where the Bears pulled off a 20-17 victory.Now we go to College Football where 2 bowl games occured this week.

In the GMAC Bowl Southern Mississippi defeated Ohio 28-7 and on Monday Night the Florida Gators proved to everyone that they're for real as they destroyed the Buckeyes 41-14 in a game where Troy Smith only had 35 passing yards with 82 total yards for the Buckeyes.People questioned whether or not the AP Poll would vote Boise State or Florida as National Champion and in the end the AP Poll declared Florida the champion of College Football.Thus meaning a Mid-Major goes unbeaten,beats a major conference champion in a BCS Bowl,and only gets a No.5 rank with two 1 loss teams(Florida and OHIO STATE) and two 2 loss teams(LSU and USC) ranked ahead of them all because they're not in the Big 12,Big Ten,SEC,ACC,Big East,or Pac 10.....whatever.

If it was up to me Boise State would be No.1 by the following scenario(that makes sense)
Boise State beat Oregon State who beat USC who beat Arkansas who beat Auburn who beat LSU who lost to Florida who also lost to Auburn and beat Ohio State who beat Michigan.The AP Poll(and BCS) fails at logic.Bottom line is if you're going to have this system at least have it so it makes SOME sense.Meanwhile in College Basketball this week both No.1 teams fell as Virginia Tech knocked off the No.1 men's team,North Carolina 94-88 in Blacksburg on Saturday and just a few hours earlier the Duke Lady Blue Devils knocked off the Lady Terrapins(much to my dismay)81-62 in Durham.Another big win came when the Maryland Terrapins(Mens) beat the previously unbeaten Clemson Tigers 92-87 yesterday rebounding from a heartbreaker against Miami.

So if anything expect Florida to take the Men's Top 25 and Duke to take the women's.Nothing happened in the NBA so no need to talk about it.So now lets get random.Now for the College
Football awards.

Worst Team of the Year:Duke(September 17,2005...the last time Duke won a game.Now you can debate that Florida International is worse but this is FIU's 2nd season in 1-A Football.In the past 3 seasons Duke is 3-31.Their last road win was Novemeber 22,2003 against North Carolina.To make matters worse they were outscored 100-13 in their first four games.They even lost AT HOME to Richmond.Its redicolus that an ACC team can't beat a Division 1-AA team in their home stadium.I can't see a light in the tunnel for the Blue Devils but I said the same thing about Rutgers a few years ago and look where they are now.

Inspiration of the Year:Wake Forest-When you think of the ACC Champion you'd usually think either Florida State or Miami.Well thats what most people thought coming into the 2006 Season but to the shock of many,FSU and Miami finished with 6-6 records and 3-5 against the ACC.To show how upside down things were compared to last year the Top 5 contenders to win the ACC Title coming into November was:Maryland,Boston College,Virginia Tech,Clemson,and Wake Forest.Preseason projections had the Demon Deacons finishing last in the ACC Atlantic Division...they were about to be shocked.The Demon Deacons kicked off the season with a 20-13 win over Syracuse,then the next suffered a scare but manage to beat Duke 14-13.At this point no one was convinced that Wake was good but 3 games later they were 5-0 heading into the October 7th game against Clemson.After jumping out to a 17-3 lead a botched field goal gave Clemson the touchdown and the Tigers went on to win 27-17.People started questioning Wake but the Deacons responded with victories over NC State,North Carolina,Boston College and a 30-0 blow out of Florida State.The last time the Noles were shut out was on September 18,1976.However,Wake slipped the next week losing 24-6 to Virginia Tech on Senior day.However,a Boston College lost set up Wake for a Atlantic Division championship game against the Maryland Terrapins at College Park and much to my displeasure Wake won in convincing fashion 38-24.It was off to the last place people expected them...the ACC Championship.On December 2nd in Jacksonville,Wake pulled off a 9-6 upset of Georgia Tech to win the ACC Title and earn a birth to the Orange Bowl for the first time ever.Despite coming up short against the Cardinals of Louisville,Wake managed to pull off a great season that will never be forgotten by Wake Forest,its fans,and College Football fanatics.

Player of the Year:Troy Smith-Despite getting destroyed by the Gators in the title game,Smith still managed to win the Heisman trophy(even though it was given to him a month prior to the game)he managed to throw 30 touchdowns(with 4 against Michigan)2,542 passing yards.

Conference of the Year:Big 10-Featuring the 12-1 Buckeyes,11-2 Wolverines,12-1 Badgers,and the 9-4 Nittany Lions of Penn State.

Mid-Major National Champion:Boise State-13-0 simply the best mid-major team in College Football.

Team of the Year:Boise State-This my friends is the real National Champion of 2006.Coming into this season the Broncos of Boise were trying to break through the majors and shut up the critics.Boise kicked off the season blowing out Sacremento State at home 45-0.The next week they played their first major game of the year defeating Oregon State 42-14 on Smurf Turf.Boise started out conference play with a 17-10 win against Wyoming on the road.In their first real challenge of the year they defeated Colt Brennan and the Hawaii Warriors 41-34 at home.Boise then went on the road and blew out Utah 36-3.

The next four games they defeated Louisiana Tech,New Mexico State,Idaho,and Fresno State all by a combine total of 182-89.Talk suddenly began about Boise State possibly being a BCS Buster and making a BCS Game.Following a close game at San Jose State they blew out Utah State(49-10) and Nevada(38-7) thus winning the WAC and earning a trip to the Fiesta Bowl against the Sooners of Oklahoma where the Broncos proved to all to be "The Team" as they defeated Oklahoma 43-42 in a shootout in overtime.Despite going 13-0 the Broncos only finished No.5 in the AP Poll and got no share of the National Championship.

Overall,however the 2006-2007 season of College Football will be always remembered in my book as the year of the Bronco.

Game of the Year(and Bowl Game of the Year):Boise State vs Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl-5 years ago no one would ever have predicted this game to happen in a BCS game.Boise State was founded in 1932 as Boise Jr. College but didn't become a University until 1974.Boise Junior College expirirenced early football success in 1958 when they went unbeaten and was declared National Champion of Jr.Colleges.In 1980 they won their first NCAA Championship in I-AA football.In 1996 the schools hard work had payed off as they were promoted to I-A.

In their two seasons they combined for 6-17 but they haven't had a losing season since 1997(where they went 4-7).In 2003 the Broncos announced that rather than playing in the Humanitarian Bowl at their home stadium they would travel to Fort Worth to play TCU in the Fort Worth Bowl.At the end the Broncos defeated Texas Christian by a score of 34-31.The next season Boise went unbeaten in the regular season only to lose 44-40 against the Cardinals of Louisville in the Liberty Bowl.Last season was a "meh" type of season as the Broncos lost to Boston College in the MPC Computers Bowl 27-21 after trailing 27-0 in the 4th Quarter.As I said earlier they ran the table thus setting up this game.

The Broncos jumped out to a 14-0 lead early in the 1st Quarter but the Sooners quickly pulled within 7 and eventually 4 coming toward the end of the 2nd Quarter when a 32 yard Jared Zabransky touchdown pass made it 21-10 at halftime.A Paul Thompson INT in the 3rd quarter led the Broncos to a 28-10 lead as stunned Sooner fans looked on.Coming into the final quarter the Sooners pulled within 11 and with a 28 yard field goal made it 28-20.With 1:26 left Thompson connected with Chaney to make it 28-26 and with a two point conversion,28-28.
A panicking Jared Zabransky then made a major mistake as his pass was picked off by Marcus Walker to make it 35-28 Sooners with 1:02 left.The Broncos drove to midfield but faced 4th and 18 with 18 seconds left.Zabransky threw a 15 yard pass to Drisan James...which was then tossed to Jerard Rabb who ran the ball 35 yards for the game tying touchdown.With 7 seconds left the Sooners took a knee and the game was sent to Overtime.Boise won the toss in OT but elected to play defense.On the first play from scrimmage,Adrian Peterson ran 25 yards to make it 42-35 in favor of the Sooners.It suddenly didn't look good for the Underdog Broncos of Boise.

It was suddenly 4th and 2 for Boise at the 5 yard line when they made a risky call as Zabransky ran from his QB position to the left and Wide Reciever Vinny Perretta took the snap,ran to the right and tossed a pass into the endzone to TE Derek Schouman to make it 42-41 in favor of OU.Rather than going for the extra point and sending it to a 2nd OT(and keeping me up another 5-10 minutes)the Broncos elected to go for 2 and ran the Statue of Liberty play to defeat the Sooners 43-42.What makes this game so great was the story coming in(Are the Broncos worthy of a BCS Bowl bid and can a Mid-Major team(Boise State) beat an established football school(Oklahoma),the game play itself(OU rallying from a 28-10 hole to take the lead with under 2 minutes remaining),the final 1:26 of the game(with OT),the ending(Wide Reciever Option scores the touchdown and the Statue of Liberty play wins the game along with Ian Johnson proposing to his girlfirend in the postgame interview).Overall the game AND bowl game of the year and maybe,just maybe the greatest game in history.

Now we move on with the Weekly Awards

Game of the Week:North Carolina vs Virginia Tech(Men's Basketball)

Team of the Week:Virginia Tech Basketball

MVP of the Week:Adam Vinatieri