NFL Draft Day 1

So I guess the Draft starts tonight, but for me this event is not anywhere close to what it once was only 2 years ago. The Draft is meant to be an all day Saturday/Sunday marathon celebration/bitch fest...not 3 individual evenings starting on a Thursday as an option for what's on and not the only thing on. I think it's dumb, but yeah, obviously I'll still watch.

First, I found our first official prediction about the upcoming season for Kill Nation, and I'm kind of surprised. But in a good way, I hope this guy is right.

Here's the link:
http://www.bigtensportswatch.com/?p=690

If you don't have time to click the link, the guy calls for 8-4 and a potential run at the Legends Division Crown!! Holy shit, I'm not sure I could even be this optimistic. If he's 100% right and we go 8-4 with wins over WIS and IOWA I might be the most excited guy in the world. How quickly would the Gopher fan base quadruple if this happens?!?! Anyway, on an otherwise brutally gloomy day, I thought this might get you a little excited...worked for me.

Next item on the list - Football Challenge rule changes. I've had a good proposal thrown over by SS...let me know what you think about this:
Each week, instead of the 10 NCAA/5 NFL games, should we make it a little more flexible and pick 5 NCAA/5 NFL/ 5 of your choice, made up of a mix of NFL/NCAA games in whatever balance you want. Let me know what you think if you are strongly for it or against it and we'll make a ruling in the coming months.

Finally, back to the initial topic of NFL Draft 2011. What do I think will happen? I nailed the Chris Cook pick last year, so I guess I'm 1 for 1. So sitting at 12, what will the Purple get this year...this is tough. Obviously, QB is need #1 but whether they go that way in the draft or FA I'm not sure. Our history says find a grizzled FA vet and let him play for 2-3 years then repeat. How do good teams do it, well, they find a guy in the draft and make him the franchise or trade something of value for a young QB who takes them to the promised land. Look at the 12 playoff teams of last year, they all fit in these 2 categories. I guess you could put NO as an outlier, because they acquired Brees via FA but he was young at the time and the ponied up the cash to get him. It's nearly impossible to fall into a great QB without giving up value in a trade or making him a top pick. There aren't many 6th round Tom Bradys out there that just happen. So with that being said, the Purple have these options. 1) Draft a young guy in Round 1 and give him the keys. It has to be a guy that they LOVE and believe can run this thing from the start. 2) Make a trade/FA play for a younger guy who can plug in and be the guy for the next 5 years. 3) Trade/FA for a grizzled vet (DMcNabb) and stay in the mediocre/garbage tier of the NFL until DMc retires in 2 years and we're back in the same spot. 4) Draft a QB in round 2-7 and hope for the best...we've been there and we're not that lucky, so what makes you think it will change this year.

BEST CASE
We get our QB at 12 as he falls down the board and it's a guy we love. I think that means Gabbert or Locker, probably nobody else. Dalton/Ponder intrigue me a bit, but not at #12. I hope we are in love with either Gabbert or Locker and we land him and love him for the next 10 years.

If our QB is gone, don't force it. I want love going OL or CB here - 2 areas where we have been terrible for a couple of years now.

Trading down is not a bad option if it means acquiring another nice pick to sure up multiple spots (Ponder/Dalton QB and add a nice OL/CB at end of R1 or R2.

I'm not 100% against trading for Kevin Kolb or Carson Palmer or something like that, but it's not my first choice and it's not a sure thing at this point. They don't know that they can make that happen at this point, so I think it's tough to go into Monday morning without a new QB on the roster.

WORST CASE
Reach for non-Gabbert/Locker QB at 12 and he bombs. Trade back and miss out on our guy, regardless of position. Ignore QB and get McNabb. Take a late round QB and expect big things. Trading up for Newton would also be brutal - I don't like him at all in the NFL and he will not be good.

SUICIDE SCENARIO
QB Dick Stanzi in round 4...I'm done with the Purple if this happens. We are already over our Hogeye limit on this roster.

What will happen?
Newton goes #1, Gabbert doesn't get past the Top 10 and we don't go up to get him. Locker also goes before us as a surprise, so we're left for taking the best player on the board...which is the Husker Price Amukamara or something like that.

I think we end up with him at #12 and try to sneak back into the late R1 to snag Dalton/Ponder. My preference is Ponder there, I really like him and think he could legitimately be a starter in the league. If I go to bed tonight with those 2 on my squad I will be very happy.

What do you guys think? Are you happy with Locker if we get him? Do you like Mallett? I hate him in the NFL. Will Jerry Kill win 8 this year or 9!?!? Can football season please start this weekend?

Much discussion tomorrow and next week. Enjoy the show tonight.

Football Challenge 2011-2012

What's up Football Challenge World?!?

So here are some ideas I have around making this a little more interesting for next year. Currently, we have 9 returning guys from last year + 1 new guy for a total of 10. I am definitely open to more if we can find it, so please let me know if you have someone else who is interested. Either send me their info or have them contact me and we'll get them all set up.

Anyway, on to the possible changes. In the past we have only paid out the overall champ and 2nd place, but I'm thinking we mix it up a bit and make it more interesting week to week. Here's my proposal:

- $100 entry fee (higher than last year, but it comes with a better chance of winning money back for everyone.

- Weekly winner gets paid out $20, if it's a tie we carry it over to the next week...this would be a total of $360 paid to the winners of the week (during the regular season only)

- Top Bowl picker gets $40, previously not paid out at all

- 1st overall in the regular season takes an additional $400 on top of his weekly winnings

- 1st overall in the Post Season takes $200

We could also change it to have 2nd take $50 and shave $50 from each of the champions winnings. I figured this would keep each week interesting and make everyone interested for the duration of the contest rather than having a couple of bad weeks and quit paying attention because you're out of the money.

Let me know what you think - obviously, these will change if we get more people, but that would be great.

Only about 4 short months until week 1 - the Hilton has NFL lines up for week 1 already!

Ooops

I may have jumped the gun on celebrating the Vikes-Bears SNF Vegas game...that weekend is a Gopher bye week, which just won't work for Vegas.

So the enthusiasm from last night's post was premature. Instead, the actual Vegas weekend plan is OCT 7-8-9-returning on the 10th.

Instead it will be CARDS at VIKES Noon game and GOPHERS at PURDUE.

Sorry for the confusion...my bad.

Purple at Bears for Vegas

2nd year in a row for the Vegas weekend to end with a Purple SNF road
game...this is a good thing.

October 14-15-16 for those that are interested.

Sent from my iPhone

MASTER'S POOL 2011 - Deadline WED NIGHT

Here's the deal, $10 to enter - send me a check, via paypal to my email address, or drop $$$ at my desk.

RULES:
- Pick 1 golfer from each group (total of 5 per team)
- Most total prize money wins it all
- Payout is 100% to the winner
- Tiebreaker is guy who had the highest rated 5th place guy on their team

Pretty simple. Here are the groups. Send me the players you want and confirmation of payment in the mail or paypal or actual cash at my desk/home.

FAVORITES
1 Phil Mickelson
2 Tiger Woods

14:1 - 28:1
3 Lee Westwood
4 Nick Watney
5 Martin Kaymer
6 Dustin Johnson
7 Luke Donald
8 Paul Casey
9 Rory McIlroy
10 Matt Kuchar
11 Padraig Harrington
12 Hunter Mahan

30:1-50:1
13 Justin Rose
14 Graeme McDowell
15 Bubba Watson
16 Steve Stricker
17 Rickie Fowler
18 Aaron Baddeley
19 Ian Poulter
20 Ernie Els
21 Anthony Kim
22 Retief Goosen
23 Sergio Garcia
24 Jim Furyk
25 Geoff Ogilvy
26 Vijay Singh
27 Francesco Molinari
28 Martin Laird
29 Charl Schwartzel
30 K.J. Choi

66:1-100:1
31 Y.E. Yang
32 Ryan Moore
33 Adam Scott
34 Robert Karlsson
35 Alvaro Quiros
36 Zach Johnson
37 Trevor Immelman
38 Ross Fisher
39 Fred Couples
40 Miguel Angel Jimenez
41 Bill Haas
42 Jason Day
43 Rory Sabbatini
44 Brandt Snedeker
45 Camilo Villegas
46 Sean O'Hair
47 Henrik Stenson
48 Edoardo Molinari
49 Jonathan Byrd
50 Tim Clark
51 Stewart Cink
52 Louis Oosthuizen
53 Angel Cabrera
54 David Toms
55 Steve Marino
56 Ben Crane
57 Stuart Appleby
58 Robert Allenby

125:1 +
59 Jhonattan Vegas
60 Ricky Barnes
61 Jeff Overton
62 Bo Van Pelt
63 Lucas Glover
64 Gary Woodland
65 Peter Hanson
66 Ryo Ishikawa
67 Mark Wilson
68 Charley Hoffman
69 Davis Love III
70 Ryan Palmer
71 Jerry Kelly
72 Kevin Na
73 Carl Pettersson
74 Anders Hansen
75 Mike Weir
76 D-A Points
77 Jose Maria Olazabal
78 Kevin Streelman
79 Alex Cejka
80 Gregory Havret
81 Heath Slocum
82 Jason Bohn
83 Arjun Atwal
84 Hiroyuki Fujita
85 Tom Watson
86 David Chung
87 Yuta Ikeda
88 Jin Jeong
89 Kyung-Tae Kim
90 Lion Kim
91 Sandy Lyle
92 Peter Uihlein
93 Craig Stadler
94 Nathan Smith
95 Mark O'Meara
96 Larry Mize
97 Hideki Matsuyama
98 Ben Crenshaw
99 Ian Woosnam

*Players were grouped according to their current odds to win the whole thing, which are noted at the top of each group.

Make it an exciting weekend on the couch and enter. Good Luck!!