A Completely Logical College Sports Business Blog and Random Thoughts on Chicago, the Illini and the World
Here are some quick picks for NFL’s Divisional Playoff Weekend (home teams in CAPS):
Frank the Tank’s NFL Football Parlay Record
Last Week: 2-2
Bears Games for the Season: 3-10–1
Overall Season: 23-23-3
I’ll have my thoughts on Illini hoops, the Big Ten bowls, and the Blackhawks Winter Classic in a few days. For now, here are some quick picks for NFL’s Wild Card Weekend (home teams in CAPS):
Frank the Tank’s NFL Football Parlay Record
Last Week: 2-1
Bears Games for the Season: 3-10–1
Overall Season: 21-21-3
There will be thoughts on the we’re-taking-every-other-week-off Illini, Kyle Orton’s smoking offense, and my continuing man crush on Derrick Rose soon. In the meantime, here are some quick picks again on a Halloween weekend (home teams in CAPS):
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PARLAY
(1) INDIANA HOOSIERS (-2) over Central Michigan Chippewas
(2) Colorado Buffaloes (+3.5) over TEXAS A&M AGGIES
(3) ILLINOIS FIGHTING ILLINI (-2.5) over Iowa Hawkeyes (We’re on the semi-weekly schedule for Illinois showing up for games, so this ought to be a relatively easy win. If the Illini lose this game, everyone should be fired.)
Frank the Tank’s College Football Parlay Record
Last Week: 2-1
Illini Games for the Season: 3-4
Overall Season: 15-11-1
NFL FOOTBALL PARLAY
(1) Baltimore Ravens (+1.5) over CLEVELAND BROWNS
(2) DENVER BRONCOS (-3) over Miami Dolphins
(3) Detroit Lions (+12.5) over CHICAGO BEARS (I have a bad feeling about this game, where the Bears should win but the team comes out so flat that they’ll fail to cover. If the Bears lose this game, everyone should be fired.)
Frank the Tank’s NFL Football Parlay Record
Last Week: 2-1
Bears Games for the Season: 2-4–1
Overall Season: 11-10-3
(Image from Happy Hour Valley)
I was on a blissful vacation last weekend, which means that I thankfully didn’t have to watch a horrific couple of days of football from the Illini and Bears. Therefore, I’ll direct you to Illinitalk and Blog Down Chicago Bears for their respective rants. Onto this week’s parlay picks (home teams in CAPS):
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PARLAY
(1) NAVY MIDSHIPMEN (+2.5) over Pittsburgh Panthers – I have few rules in life, but one of them is that a Dave Wannstedt-coached team is not allowed to be ranked for two weeks in a row.
(2) Miami Hurricanes (-3.5) over DUKE BLUE DEVILS – The mighty might have fallen a bit in Miami, but they’re still light years ahead of Puke football.
(3) ILLINOIS FIGHTING ILLINI (-15.5) over Indiana Hoosiers – The bookies are absolutely KILLING me with another double-digit spread in favor of Illinois for the second week in a row (and we know how that turned out against Minnesota), especially with the Hawaii-style defense (as in no defense) that the Illini appear to be utilizing lately. Still, WTF was I thinking in picking Indiana last week after they put up an embarrassing performance against Iowa? I should have known better than to choose those Satan’s Spawn enablers. Let’s hope that the Minnesota game was the equivalent of the Iowa game last year – a Zookian brain fart against an inferior team.
Frank the Tank’s College Football Parlay Record
Last Week: 1-2
Illini Games for the Season: 2-3
Overall Season: 11-9-1
NFL FOOTBALL PARLAY
(1) GREEN BAY PACKERS (+2) over Indianapolis Colts – The bookies have essentially made the Packers into my anti-Illini for gambling purposes this year, where I’m pretty sure every spread involving Green Bay so far has been within a field goal. They’re way too enticing again, especially at home against an Indy club that largely running on reputation this season.
(2) CAROLINA PANTHERS (-3) over New Orleans Saints – You know that the spreads are FUBAR this week when I’m including this game, which involves two scarily inconsistent teams. I’m still in denial that we are entering a world where the Dolphins are a favorite against the Ravens and Vegas is spotting double-digits to Brian Griese versus a Mike Holmgren-coached team.
(3) CHICAGO BEARS (-3) over Minnesota Vikings – The fact that the Bears have the same record as the Vikings right now is a complete abomination. The New York Times pointed out that the difference between the Bears being 6-0 as opposed to 3-3 is a swing of a total of 8 points in an aggregate of 4 minutes at the conclusion of their 3 losses. Meanwhile, the Vikings needed a questionable pass interference call to pull out a win against the pathetic Lions. This really ought to be a double-digit spread for the Bears on paper, but Vegas correctly recognizes that there are still plenty of ways that we can pry defeat from the jaws of victory in the fourth quarter.
Frank the Tank’s NFL Football Parlay Record
Last Week: 1-2
Bears Games for the Season: 1-4–1
Overall Season: 6-9-3
FIRST BULLS RANT OF THE SEASON
On a final note, if Larry Hughes starts another Bulls preseason game instead of Derrick Rose (yes, I’ve been watching preseason basketball – there’s some serious b-ball withdrawl on my end), I will personally see to it that Vinny Del Negro’s rims are ripped off his car and sold off on Maxwell Street next Sunday. In a remarkable turn of events, Stacey King actually stated something worthwhile on Tuesday’s broadcast by noting that the rest of the Bulls need to adjust to Derrick Rose’s game as opposed to the other way around. My gawd, I think he’s got it!!! There will be a justifiable fan mutiny if we continue to hear crap that Rose needs to be coddled into the lineup. I agree that all observers need to temper expectations for production out of 19-year old rookie point guard, but he needs as much time on the floor as possible since this team needs to be built around his talent and skills instead of trying to wedge him into a rotation with 18 other undersized guards. The regular season hasn’t even started yet and the presence of Larry Hughes is already making me twitch – this isn’t a good sign. At the very least, I need to be able to take in the sight of two of my man crushes in Rose and Deron Williams going at each other in a special exhibition game at the Assembly Hall in Champaign on Friday night – I’m officially getting all tingly right now.
Go Bulls, Go Deron, Go Illini, and Go Bears!
(Image from ESPN.com)
It will be another short parlay post this week as I’ve got wedding duties for a good friend. In short, this ought to be one of those banner sports weekends in theory, with the local football scene moving from Pennsylvania to Michigan with Illinois-Michigan on Saturday and Bears-Lions on Sunday, along with both the White Sox and Cubs trying to stave off early eliminations from the playoffs (ugh). At least as a Sox fan, this playoff appearance is a bit like playing with house money at this point since absolutely no one has any expectations for this team compared to the others in the American League. Plus, I didn’t expect much with Javy Vasquez yesterday – the next three guys in the White Sox rotation are going to give us much more of a chance to win. I’m not sure if there’s much I can say to Cubs fans right now to make them feel better, other than Fox executives are flipping out just as much. (Note in that article the MLB executives have politically correct quotes talking about some great storylines for small markets, while the Fox sales exec straight-up says, “It’s all about the Cubs right now.”) Anyway, let’s hope both baseball teams and the Illini turn it around (along with my horrid handicapping as of late after a pretty good start), with the strange feeling of the Bears being the overachievers of the past week. Here are the football picks (home teams in CAPS):
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PARLAY
(1) Ohio State Buckeyes (-1.5) over WISCONSIN BADGERS
(2) Florida State Seminoles (+2.5) over MIAMI HURRICANES
(3) Illinois Fighting Illini (+3) over MICHIGAN WOLVERINES (Michigan played possibly the worst first half in terms of self-inflicted wounds that I’ve ever seen from any football team but came back to win. Still, I feel strangely good about the Illini in this game, which probably means that I’m going to be crushed by Muck Fichigan for the 959th time in life.)
Frank the Tank’s College Football Parlay Record
Last Week: 1-2
Illini Games for the Season: 1-2
Overall Season: 7-7-1
NFL FOOTBALL PARLAY
(1) BALTIMORE RAVENS (+3) over Tennessee Titans
(2) DENVER BRONCOS (-3) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
(3) Chicago Bears (-3.5) over DETROIT LIONS (Will I get a Bears game correct this season? I feel like the Susan Lucci of the sports book. If anything, this is empirical evidence that you should never ever gamble on a team that you are emotionally invested in.)
Frank the Tank’s NFL Football Parlay Record
Last Week: 0-3
Bears Games for the Season: 0-3–1
Overall Season: 4-7-1
(Image from ESPN.com)
Should anyone be surprised that the Bears would revert right back its old offensive ways against the Panthers? The only thing that was shocking was that our neckbearded hero Kyle Orton got juiced up and actually overthrew about 10 open receivers as opposed to undercutting them. It’s also tough for either team to gain any momentum when there was a total of two plays during the entire game where there wasn’t a false start or offsides penalty called. What a shame that a couple of great special teams plays along with a relatively decent effort by the defense was wasted again (which has been the general story for the past three seasons). I’m resigned to the fact that this is going to be the case for yet another year, so I’ll just pin my hopes on the fact that if a team is able to play on one side of the ball exceedingly well in today’s NFL, it can at least get into position to make the playoffs (a la 2005). On to this week’s parlay picks (home teams in CAPS):
(1) Pittsburgh Steelers (+3.5) over PHILADELPHIA EAGLES – I’m not a fan of this week’s lines with every single home team being a favorite with the exception of Dallas at Green Bay (and I have grave reservations about picking against the Packers at Lambeau Field). The Steelers looked like the prohibitive favorites for the AFC title after week one but were brought back down to Earth with a grindy performance at Cleveland last week. I’m also not sure what to make of the Monday Night shootout between the Eagles and Cowboys, which was an awful exposure of the once-mighty Philly D. The Eagles are tough at the Linc, yet I still think that the Steelers are the better team, so it’s worth it to take the points here.
(2) BALTIMORE RAVENS (-2.5) over Cleveland Browns – This year’s Browns are well down the road of being the worst team to ever be featured on the maximum number of national TV appearances during a season, which is a distinction currently held by the 2002 Bears. This isn’t a good year to own Derek Anderson and Kellen Winslow Jr. on your fantasy team.
/throws laptop across the room
And finally…
(3) CHICAGO BEARS (-3) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers – As a non-Cubs Chicago sports fan, I’m naturally a pessimist, but even I can recognize that the Bears defense ought to be able to hold down a team whose top two wide receivers are Ike Turner Hilliard and Joey Galloway, who happen to be the only two current NFL players that were alive when the Cubs last won the World Series. Hence, I’m giving the points in this game.
I’ll be at Solider Field on Sunday, so I’m going to be looking for the Bears to do a little better than how the Illini performed when I was in Champaign last weekend. Go Bears and Go White Sox!
Frank the Tank’s NFL Football Parlay Record
Last Week: 1-1-1
Bears Games for the Season: 0-1–1
Overall Season: 3-2-1
(Image from Chicago Tribune)
FRANK THE TANK'S SLANT 