MAGIC WEEK 8!

Indulge me in one sidebar before we get to the main story for today which is football of course.

THE SIDEBAR
So if you look at the MSNBC homepage--and likely many others, as well--you will see at the very top, on the left, one story; just across from it, on the right, another story. The story on the left tells us that "a friend to the U.S.", heir to the Saudi Arabian throne, has died. On the right we see a line of Libyans--one man reporting that he is "happy"--as they wait to see the dead body of Khaddafy. I suppose the Colonel is "lying in hate" as it were. But to me there is another story. On the left you have a nation, an "ally", which seems to be made of that famous "teflon" when it comes to bad press. On the right you have a nation which seems to be a bad press magnet. One death is mourned, the other celebrated.
Pan Am 103, and the release of the man who planned it, were inexplicably terrible events. And the Libyan people have suffered mightily under their ruler. Those are facts whose events cannot be condoned nor their reality denied. I'm simply noting that in this comparison at least, in the realm of public opinion, it seems that Saudi Arabia is the Homecoming Queen to Libya's (pick the thing you hate from high school). But what I'm really asking, and of myself now and often, is this: Are we spending too much time being cheerleaders for "our side" in so many instances and not enough time studying matters and crafting opinions for ourselves? Life rarely runs along the narrow defining lines of dichotomy. Khaddafy was a bad guy for sure, and I hope the people of Libya will find their way through this difficult but necessary time. I just do not want to blythely assume as much glory on one nation as we rightly do infamy on the other. The juxtaposition of the two stories just struck me wrong, I suppose. No offense intended; must be the old newspaper layout editor in me clamoring for attention again.

AND NOW, THE MAIN EVENT: FOOTBALL!!
WEEK EIGHT: LAY IT STRAIGHT (or Eight Maids a Milkin'??)
I'm gonna try a little experiment this week. An experiment in the probability of constants. I maintain that all the Top 25 teams playing today will win according to their ranking. Last night was the outlier. Today will look like this:

#1 LSU will defeat #20 Auburn (game in Shreveport)DUH: Baton Rouge--had "less miles" on my mind, I suppose
#2 Alabama will defeat Tennessee (game in Tuscaloosa)
#3 Oklahoma will defeat Texas Tech (game in Norman)
#4 Oklahoma State will defeat Missouri (game in Columbia)
#5 Boise State will defeat Air Force (game in Boise)
#6 Wisconsin will defeat #16 Michigan State (game in East Lansing)
#7 Clemson will defeat North Carolina (game in Clemson)
#8 Stanford will defeat #25 Washington (game On The Farm, Stanford, Ca.)
(And might I just add that the fact that Clemson is ranked #7 and Stanford is ranked #8 somehow reminds me of that sidebar above. The Cardinal just "can't get no respect!")
#9 Arkansas will defeat Mississippi (game in Oxford)
#10 Oregon will defeat Colorado (game in Boulder, commiseration in your local tap room)
#11 Kansas State will defeat Kansas (game in Manhattan)
#12 Virginia Tech will defeat Boston College (game in Blacksburg)
#13 Nebraska will defeat Minnesota (game in Minneapolis)
(But hey, Sunday is Packers-Vikings day. There's always tomorrow, right Minnesotans!?)
#14 South Carolina is idle
#15 West Virginia lost to Syracuse (game was in Syracuse last night and is our "outlier")
#16 (see #6)
#17 Texas A&M will defeat Iowa State (game in Ames)
#18 Michigan is idle
#19 Houston will defeat Marshall (game in Houston)
#20 (see #1)
#21 Penn State will defeat Northwestern (game in Chicago)
#22 Georgia Tech will defeat Miami (game in Miami)
#23 Illinois will defeat Purdue (game in West Lafayette)
#24 Texas is idle
#25 (see #8)


Football-by-numbers: Let's hope it turns out better than that horsie at the fence I attempted to paint-by-numbers years ago. (And no, it wasn't a Paint Pony.) Giddy-up to the gridiron, pardners! Yee+Ha