Matt Holthe's Fleeting Thoughts

Going by this week's BCS standings, here's the "who have you played" game for the undefeated teams in the BCS... #1 Oregon - beat New Mexico (0-8), Tennessee (2-6), FCS team Portland St (2-6), Arizona St (4-4), Stanford (7-1), Washington St (1-8), UCLA (3-5), and USC (5-3). Combined W-L of 24-41 (37%). One signature win. Non-conference W-L 4-20 (17%). #2 Auburn - beat Arkansas St (3-5), Miss St (7-2), Clemson (4-4), South Carolina (6-2), La Monroe (4-4), Kentucky (4-5), Arkansas (6-2), LSU (7-1), Mississippi (3-5). Combined W-L of 44-30 (59%). Four signature wins. Non-conference W-L 11-13 (46%). #3 TCU - beat Oregon St (4-3), FCS team Tenn Tech (4-4), Baylor (7-2), SMU (5-4), Colorado St (3-6), Wyoming (2-7), BYU (3-5), Air Force (5-4), UNLV (1-7). Combined W-L of 34-42 (45%). One signature win. Non-conference W-L 20-13 (61%). #4 Boise St - beat Virginia Tech (6-2), Wyoming (2-7), Oregon St (4-3), New Mexico St (2-6), Toledo (6-3), San Jose St (1-8), La Tech (3-5). Co...

As a follow-up to my Will I Reach Platinum post, I am currently at 50 segments. I am getting 4 more this week, and that puts me up to 54. I have a chance at 2-4 more, but I'm not sure about anything beyond that. So, I decided to buy a flight to Denver. That gets me 4 more segments, so I'm up to 58 guaranteed and just need that "chance" to come through with at least 2 more segments. Will buying the flight be worth it? There's some things that you can't put a price on when comparing Platinum and Gold - earlier boarding (most times; sometimes they let Platinum and Gold board at the same time), preferred seating choices, higher in the queue for upgrades and standby, etc. But let's look at the things I can put a price on. First, every flight up to Chicago gets me 500 miles if I'm Gold and 1,000 miles if I'm Platinum. In 2011, it would take me (most likely) 15 trips to get the 60 segments to get back up to Platinum. (I might do it in 1-2 less with extra...

I need to get to 60 segments on American Airlines before the end of the year to achieve Platinum status for 2011. In another couple of weeks, I'll be up to 50 segments. (Since I started this only in June, that's pretty impressive). But I have no other trips scheduled after that. I need 3 more trips to make sure. (Generally, trips are 4 segments - 2 to get out and 2 to get home). I might be able to squeeze it out of two trips (both with 5 segments or one with 6 and one with 4) but it would be difficult. There's nothing on the horizon right now, but I will have 2 months before the end of the year. So hopefully something kicks in.

This week I went to Atlantic City, NJ, to visit a customer. I decided to go out early so I could see the city since I've never been there before. I've been to Las Vegas dozens of times. But there's no comparison. The boardwalk is really cool - a couple miles long, and just a few steps away from the beach. There are these guys that push you along in carts. Kinda like a rickshaw, except they push you from behind and don't run. Most of the real estate along the boardwalk is shops and eateries, not casinos like in Vegas. I think it would be a cool vibe in summer - I was there in late September on a Monday and it was still pretty crowded. There's only a few casinos - nowhere near as many as in Vegas. They have the usual games, but I didn't see any $5 blackjack (which you'll find every few casinos in Vegas). The one thing I didn't like was how they "nickle and dime" you. It costs 75 cents in tolls when you get to the city, then another 75 cents when ...

As of right now, the Big 10 has 12 schools (Nebraska just joined), the Big 12 has 10 schools (Nebraska and Colorado left), and the Pac 10 has 11 schools (Colorado). The rumors are that Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, and Utah will join the Pac 10 to make 16 teams. Texas A&M is rumored to join the SEC and make 13 schools. That leaves Kansas, Kansas St, Missouri, Baylor, and Iowa St in the remains of the Big 12 conference. I would think that the SEC would want 1 more team (to get an even number of teams) so maybe they would take Baylor. If the Big 10 can get Notre Dame and get up to 16 teams, that would be the only scenario where they would take Missouri (not the others). They would also (most likely) want Syracuse and Rutgers to make the 16 team conference. About the only thing for the other 3 would be to join the Mountain West and make that an 12 team conference (it's 10 right now - Boise St joined a week or so ago), which would go down to 9 if Utah leaves). There...

After three days of work spanning two weekends we have the deck finished. Day 1 was cleaning the deck, day 2 was the main deck, and day 3 was the stairs. We used Cabot preservative wood finish semi-transparent chestnut drown stain. It took 3 gallons of stain (we did only 1 coat). We also went through 1 gallon of mineral spirits, 2 brushes, 1 small roller (for the spindles), 1 large roller (for the main deck), a few tarps, masking tape, and a metal pan. We really like the look of the deck. Hopefully it lasts for 2-3 years so we don't have to do it again for a while. The spindles were the worst part, but using a small roller helps - you can get the majority with a roller. On the main deck, the big roller didn't "run into" the cracks between boards very much. If we had known that ahead of time, we would have used a brush to get between the boards and then went over it with the roller.

After moving to Bloomington, it has become a bit more difficult to plan my trips. Denver was much easier. (But, it was more time consuming to get to/from the Denver airport compared to Bloomington) I have a trip to the Silicon Valley area of California coming up. The closest airport to the customer is San Jose, but San Francisco and Oakland are also possibilities. Looking at flights, there are some ugly options for BMI (Bloomington) to SJC (San Jose) or SFO (San Francisco). The return is the worst - it is a 4 hour flight + 2 time zones going from SFO - ORD (Chicago). That means allocating 6 hours for just that leg of the trip. Leaving at 6:00 AM? I would have to get up pretty early to get to the airport. Leaving at 10:00 AM? I would finally get home around dinner time. Leaving after work at 7:00 PM? I'd have to sleep on the plane. There just aren't that many good options. When I was flying out of Denver, the longest flights were to the east coast. The return on those flights wa...

I'm not a big NHL fan, but this is pretty interesting. In the Eastern Conference playoffs, first round, the #1 seed Washington lost 4-3 to the #8 seed Montreal, #2 seed New Jersey lost 4-1 to the #7 seed Philadelphia, #3 seed Buffalo lost 4-2 to the #6 seed Boston, and #4 seed Pittsburgh beat #5 seed Ottawa 4 games to 2. Note that in each round of the NHL playoffs, teams are reseeded (highest seed vs lowest seed). So, in the Eastern Conference semi-finals, #4 Pittsburgh plays #8 Montreal and #6 Boston gets home ice against #7 Philadelphia. The Western Conference is more "predictable" - #1 San Jose plays #5 Detroit and #2 Chicago plays #3 Vancouver.

I was watching the NFL draft last night, and, although it's not really up my alley, I thought that would be a kinda cool spectator sport. Something on the "bucket list" for sports. Then I thought, what else would be on that list? Here's what I came up with. Some of these I've done, but not many of them. Any I'm forgetting? Attend the NFL draft Attend a super bowl Spend the week before the super bowl at the host city and go to parties and stuff Go to a final four/national championship game Go to Vegas for the super bowl Go to the Masters See a baseball game at Wrigley Field See a baseball game at Fenway Park Play golf at St Andrews Play golf at Pebble Beach Go to the Daytona 500 Go to the Indy 500 Go to a College Football National Championship game Go to the Rose Bowl game (and the rose bowl parade, but that's not really sports-related)

Tiger finished tied for 4th in this year's Masters, which actually means he lost a bit of ground on Jack Nicklaus. Jack's 51st event (1974 British Open) ended up with a 3rd place finish. Comparing Jack to Tiger through 51 professional events: Wins: Tiger 14, Jack 12 2nd Place Finishes: Jack 10, Tiger 6 (this is where I still think Jack is the best golfer ever... he had 18 wins, but 19 seconds) Top 3 Finishes: Jack 28, Tiger 23 Top 5 Finishes: Jack 33, Tiger 27 Top 10 Finishes: Jack 37, Tiger 33 In order for Tiger to gain ground on Jack, here's Jack's next 5 events... 1974 PGA - 2nd place 1975 Masters - Win 1975 US Open - Tied for 7th 1975 British Open - Tied for 3rd 1975 PGA - Win So, if Tiger doesn't win any of the next 5 events, they will be tied in wins and Jack will be ahead in the other areas.

In less than a month, NCAA presidents will discuss and vote on whether to expand the NCAA tournament from the current 65 teams to 96 teams. That would amount to 32 "opening round" games to bring the field down to 64 teams. The 32 "opening round" winners would play 32 teams who received buys. What do I think of this? I personally hate the idea. One reason is purely from being a fan. The 64 team bracket is filled out by just about everyone - people who don't follow college basketball all year fill one out. If it's 96 teams, I think the participation will go down quite a bit. The next reason is because of logistics. I take the first Thursday and Friday of the tournament off to watch those 32 games. Now there will be 32 opening round games followed by 32 first round games - when are those going to be played? I can't take 4 days off to watch all the games. Do I watch the opening round games and skip the next round, or vice versa? Do I pretty well skip them al...

For grins, Tim and I picked every line and every total for the first and second round of the NCAA tournament. This meant 32 picks Thursday (16 lines, 16 totals), 32 Friday, 16 Saturday, and 16 Sunday. That's 96 overall predictions. Tim wasn't able to get in all the picks for Thursday, though. Here's how we did: Tim - Line predictions (25-12-1, 67%): Thursday - 4-2 Friday - 12-3-1 Saturday - 5-3 Sunday - 4-4 Tim - Total predictions (17-15, 53%): Thursday - none Friday - 9-7 Saturday - 4-4 Sunday - 4-4 Tim - Overall 42-27-1, 61% Matt - Line predictions (29-17-2, 63%): Thursday - 7-8-1 Friday - 12-3-1 Saturday - 5-3 Sunday - 5-3 Matt - Total predictions (25-23, 52%): Thursday - 6-10 Friday - 8-8 Saturday - 6-2 Sunday - 5-3 Matt - Overall 54-40-2, 57%

Things were a bit back to normal today, although there was one overtime game and one buzzer-beater. But the 2 #1 seeds playing today both won, as did both #2 seeds. #3 seed Pittsburgh lost to #6 Xavier in a mild upset and #12 Cornell beat #4 Wisconsin in the biggest upset of the day. Favorites were 4-3 (there was one "pick 'em" game) and overs were 5-3. In the sweet 16, we have these match-ups: #2 Ohio St vs #6 Tennessee and #5 Michigan St vs #9 Northern Iowa in St Louis #1 Syracuse vs #5 Butler and #2 Kansas St vs #6 Xavier in Salt Lake City #1 Kentucky vs #12 Cornell and #2 West Virginia vs #11 Washington in Syracuse #1 Duke vs #4 Purdue and #3 Baylor vs #10 St Mary's (CA) in Houston That means there are 3 Big Ten teams, 2 SEC teams, 2 Big East teams, 2 Big 12 teams, and 1 each from the Missouri Valley, Horizon, Atlantic 10, Ivy League, Pac 10, ACC, and West Coast Conference in the sweet 16.

Wow - what a start to the second round of the NCAA tournament. A #1 seed (THE #1 seed - top overall seed Kansas) loses and a #2 seed loses. From 1985 through 2009 (after the field expanded to 64/65 teams), #1 seeds were 100-0 in the first round and 88-12 in the second round. So this is the 13th #1 seed to drop before the end of the first weekend. #2 seeds were 96-4 in the first round and 64-32 in the second round. It's much more common for a #2 seed to drop by the end of the first weekend, but still pretty rare. Half of the sweet 16 field is set and the teams have these seeds: #1, #2, #3, #5, #6, #9, #10, and #11. 3 teams that (by seed) weren't supposed to even win 1 game have won 2. There are also 3 teams from non-BCS schools in the sweet 16 - Butler (a #5 seed), Northern Iowa (#9 seed, the team that beat Kansas), and St Mary's CA (#10 seed, the team that beat #2 seed Villanova). Favorites were 5-3 yesterday, and overs were also 5-3. My bracket is now pretty beat - I had K...

Today's action wasn't quite as good as yesterday's, but it was still good. We had #12 Cornell beating #5 Temple, two #10 seeds (Missouri and Georgia Tech) beating #7 seeds (Clemson and Oklahoma St), but not as many close games. There were no overtime games and only 3 games decided by 5 points or less. Favorites were 9-6-1, and Overs were 6-10, so betting the unders would have been a good choice. I again did well in the bracket - 13-3, which makes for 27-5 for the first round. Nobody in the nation (either ESPN or CBS Sports) got the entire first round correct.

What a first day of the NCAA basketball tournament! It got off to a bang - in the first four games, there was an overtime game, a double-overtime game, and two one-point games in regulation. In total, there were 3 games that went into at least one overtime and 6 other games decided by 5 points or less. We had a #2 seed needing overtime to beat a #15 seed, a #14 seed beating a #3 seed, a #13 seed beating a #4 seed, and two #11 seeds beating #6 seeds. The "little guys" fared really well - BYU beat Florida, Murray St beat Vanderbilt, Old Dominion beat Notre Dame, and Ohio beating Georgetown. That's not to mention games between non-BCS conferences, like Northern Iowa beating UNLV, Butler beating UTEP, St Mary's beating Richmond, and New Mexico beating Montana. So that's 8 teams from outside the BCS conferences that won yesterday, and 8 from BCS schools that won. My bracket went well - I picked the first 10 games right and ended up 14-2 for the day. Probably my best si...

Next week I'll be taking my first airplane trip since December 15. WOW! That's by far the longest I've gone in several years. I've had a few trips in there, but they were driving trips. (Since I moved back to Illinois, several cities make more sense to drive to than fly to). And next week's trip isn't even a business trip - it's a trip to Las Vegas for the middle weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament.

The automatic bids have some pretty hefty records this year. Here's what we have so far: Atlantic Sun: East Tenn State - #5 seed - 20-14 Big Sky: Montana - #4 seed - 22-9 Big South: Winthrop - #3 seed - 19-13 Colonial: Old Dominion - #1 seed - 26-8 Horizon: Butler - #1 seed - 28-4 Ivy: Cornell - no tourney - 27-4 MAAC: Siena - #1 seed - 27-6 Missouri Valley: Northern Iowa - #1 seed - 28-4 Northeast: Robert Morris - #2 seed - 23-11 Ohio Valley: Murray State - #1 seed - 30-4 Southern: Wofford - #1 (south) seed - 26-8 Summit: Oakland - #1 seed - 26-8 Sun Belt: North Texas - #2 seed - 24-8 WCC: St Mary's CA - #2 seed - 26-5 I wonder how high some of these teams will be seeded? Better yet, I wonder how low some at-large teams will be seeded? Guess we'll find out Sunday!

The bubble teams for this year's NCAA tournament are rejoicing so far. Most tournaments have been going true to form. Here's the ones that have completed: In the A-Sun conference (a 1-bid league), #5 East Tenn St beat #6 Mercer. Big South (1-bid), #3 Winthrop beat #1 Coastal Carolina CAA (potential bid-stealing league), #1 Old Dominion beat #3 William and Mary Horizon (potential bid-stealer), #1 Butler beat #2 Wright St MAAC (potential bid-stealer), #1 Siena beat #2 Fairfield Missouri Valley (potential bid-stealer), #1 Northern Iowa beat #2 Wichita St Ohio Valley (potential bid-stealer), #1 Murray St beat #2 Morehead St Southern (1-bid), #1S Wofford beat #1N Appalachian St Summit (1-bid), #1 Oakland beat #2 IUPUI Sun Belt (1-bid), #2 North Texas beat #1 Troy WCC (potential bid-stealer), #2 St Mary's CA beat #1 Gonzaga Out of these tournaments, Butler and Northern Iowa were going to get in even if they lost - those spots are now open on the bubble. Siena, Old Dominion, and M...

The Big Ten conference has made no secret about the fact that they want a 12th school in the conference. It gives them a chance to have a championship game in football (read: $$$). Who makes sense? I know there are academic standards and I don't know who falls into that category, so I'll only look at things from a geographic and athletic standpoint. Northern Illinois makes sense geographically, but I don't know if the school is big enough to work into the Big Ten. Pittsburgh seems to make the most sense to me. Penn St has always been at the outer edges in terms of geography. They're pretty good in football and basketball, so they would assist the conference from that standpoint. They have a huge rivalry with West Virginia, so I don't know if they want to split that up. Missouri has been tossed around as a possibility. I can't see the Mizzou/Kansas rivalry being broken up -> that's one of the biggest around considering both football and basketball together...