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The 2007 Major League Baseball season was one of the most exciting and noteworthy in the history of professional baseball. The sport got a huge amount of publicity, both good and bad, over the last year. As we head into the 2008 season, let us first take a look back on the 2007 campaign.
When you flip your calendar from February to March, that’s a signal for college basketball fans to get excited. The men’s NCAA Division I basketball tournament, commonly referred to as March Madness, will take place this year from March 18th until April 7th.
In total, 65 men’s Division I basketball teams take part in March Madness. The teams play a single elimination tournament until there is only one team left standing. The one school left standing at the end of the tournament is crowned national champion of men’s Division I basketball.
The first game of the NCAA tournament. is played between the 64th and 65th ranked teams in a game which is called the “play-in game.” This contest was added in 2001 as a way to widen the field to help ensure that as many qualified teams as possible are allowed to participate in March Madness. The winner of the play-in game gets a sixteen seed in the tournament. This season, that play-in game features Coppin State versus Mount St. Mary’s.
There are four regions in the tournament, with each region having teams seeded from number one to number sixteen. Each region plays single elimination games until there is only one team left standing in the region. In the first round games in each region, the one seed plays the sixteen seed, the two seed plays the fifteen seed, the three seed plays the fourteen seed, the four seed plays the thirteen seed, the five seed plays the twelve seed, the six seed plays the eleven seed, the seven seed plays the ten seed, and the eight seed plays the nine seed.
The second round of the tournament begins with 32 schools still alive in the tournament – with each region having eight seeds remaining. The winner of one versus sixteen faces the winner of eight versus nine, the winner of two versus fifteen plays the winner of seven versus ten, the winner of three versus fourteen plays the winner of six versus eleven, and the winner of four versus thirteen plays the winner of five versus twelve.
The third round of games begins with 16 schools still standing. This round of games is known as the Sweet Sixteen. The team left in the bracket with the one, eight, nine and sixteen seeds plays the team left in the bracket with the four, five, twelve and thirteen seeds. The team left in the bracket with the two, seven, ten and fifteen seeds plays the team left in the bracket with the three, six, eleven and fourteen seeds.
The third round of games has only eight teams remaining, with the teams still alive forming what is known as the Elite Eight. At this point, only two teams remain standing in each region. Those two teams face off to determine the region winner.
The four region winners advance and this point of the tournament is known as the Final Four. After the next round of games, there are only two teams left standing. Those two teams play to determine the national champion of men’s Division I basketball.
March Madness has been a college basketball staple since 1939. In 1939, the University of Oregon beat Ohio State University in an eight team tournament that was held during March 17th and March 27th of that year.
The size of the field that has taken part in March Madness has changed over the years. From 1939 to 1950, only eight teams took part. By 1975, 32 teams were playing in March Madness. In 1980, that number jumped up to 48 teams. From 1985 to 2000, 64 teams played in March Madness. In 2001, the play-in game was added and the current field of 65 teams was instituted.
Over the years, the UCLA Bruins have been the most successful team in March Madness history. UCLA has won 11 national championships, with the first being in 1964 and the most recent being in 1995. Kentucky is second on the list with seven national championships. Indiana (5), North Carolina (4) and Duke (3) are the only other schools that have won a national championship more than twice.
Florida won both the 2006 and 2007 national championships, becoming the first team to win back-to-back national championships since Duke won in both 1991 and 1992. Amazingly, Florida won each of their national championships with the same starting lineup (Taurean Green, Lee Humphrey, Corey Brewer, Joakim Noah and Al Horford).
In March Madness 2008, 31 teams were given automatic bids into the tournament for winning their conference championship. The remaining 34 teams relied on being picked to play in the tournament on Selection Sunday. On Selection Sunday, a ten person panel decided which 34 teams most deserved entrance into March Madness. In 2008, Selection Sunday was on March 16th.
With the 65-team tournament bracket set, there are some interesting matchups across the board. While no number one seed has lost in this current format, North Carolina, UCLA, Memphis and Kansas while try to avoid making the wrong kind of history. Tennessee, Georgetown, Duke and Texas all were granted two seeds in the tournament. Michael Beasley, who is regarded as the best player in the country by most experts, will lead his eleventh seeded Kansas State squad against sixth seeded UCS. Smaller schools with high seeds include Drake (fifth seed), Gonzaga (seventh seed) and Butler (seventh seed).
In March Madness 2008, a number of teams are being picked to go home with the national championship. Most college basketball experts point to one of six schools most likely to win the national championship: North Carolina, Memphis, UCLA, Tennessee, Kansas and Duke. Memphis currently has the best record in the nation at 33-1, however North Carolina (33-2) is the nation’s top rated team. While it’s certainly possible for another team to win it, there’s a good chance that the eventual champion will be one of these six squads.
The Final Four in 2008 will be held in San Antonio at the Alamodome.
San Antonio was last the home for the Final Four in 1998 when Kentucky beat Utah to win the national championship. The first two games of the Final Four will be held on March 5th, while the national championship game will be on March 7th.
If you’ve never watched March Madness basketball, you owe it to yourself to check it out. March Madness is regarded by many as the best postseason format in all of sports. It gives schools of all sizes and skill level a chance to take home the championship. Cinderella stories are common place during March Madness when a small school comes out of nowhere to contend for a national championship.
Examples of Cinderella stories include the eighth seeded 1985 national champions Villanova and the sixth seeded 1983 national champions North Carolina State.
On television, you can watch most of March Madness on CBS. Especially for the opening rounds, there is typically wall to wall coverage as CBS keeps its viewers updated on each game going on around the country. Whole games will become more prominent in CBS’ coverage once the field is thinned. The Final Four games, especially the national championship game, bring millions upon millions of viewers.
If you want the full experience, don’t forget about the play-in game. ESPN has extensive television coverage of the play-in game, along with their in-depth look at the tournament on a whole. You can also watch all the March Madness games online at March Madness on Demand.
Don’t forget to fill out your bracket! Compete with your friends and family to see who can best predict the outcome of March Madness.
On February 17th, the 50th running of the Daytona 500 will take place in Daytona Beach, Florida. The Daytona 500 is basically to stock car racing as the Super Bowl is to professional football. It’s the most important race of the year and it’s the one race every racer would love to win. To be considered great, you need a Daytona 500 win on your resume, otherwise you never climbed the sport’s biggest mountain.
Four teams headed into Sunday with their Super Bowl dreams alive. By the end of the day, two of those teams had their dreams end.
In the first game, the San Diego Chargers took an early lead when Nate Kaeding made a 26 yard field goal. However, Laurence Maroney quickly answered with a one yard touchdown for the New England Patriots to put the Patriots ahead. While the game remained close throughout, the Chargers would never take the lead again. Tom Brady had two touchdown passes as the Patriots remained undefeated on the season.
The Green Bay Packers hosted the New York Giants in the second game on Sunday. In a back and forth affair with multiple lead changes, both the Packers and Giants fought valiantly for the right to play in the Super Bowl. After the game went into overtime, Brett Favre threw a costly interception for the Packers and the Giants’ Eli Manning marched his team down the field for a game-winning field goal by Lawrence Tynes.
By the end of the day on Sunday, the Patriots and Giants had stamped their tickets to Super Bowl XLII, which is to be played in Phoenix, Arizona on February 3rd. In the Super Bowl, the Patriots will try to remain undefeated while the Giants will try to pull one of the greatest Super Bowl upsets in NFL history.
Photo credit: NFL.com
With only four teams in the NFL still alive, the two games this coming Sunday will determine who is going to the Super Bowl. In the NFC championship game, the New York Giants travel to take on the Green Bay Packers. In the AFC championship game, the New England Patriots host the San Diego Chargers.
In the NFC, each of the two teams were considered long shots when the 2007 season began. The Giants have historically been a good team but with the retirement of star running back Tiki Barber, not too many league analysts gave the Giants a chance to have a successful season. In Green Bay, the team had struggled in recent years and 38-year-old quarterback Brett Favre had looked his age over the last couple seasons. However, both team overcame the odds and now meet at 6:30PM EST on Sunday to determine who has the right to advance to the Super Bowl.
In the earlier game on Sunday, the undefeated Patriots will look to remain without a loss when the game kicks off at 3:00PM EST. The Patriots are anything but a long shot. When the season started, many expected the Patriots to be good. They just didn’t know they’d be this good. With two more wins, the Patriots can become the first team in NFL history to go 19-0.
The San Diego Chargers, on the other hand, are a bit of a Cinderella story. After losing starting quarterback Philip Rivers and starting running back LaDainian Tomlinson during last week’s game, the team still managed to pull off a victory against the defending Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts. Now the Chargers look to pull the upset against the Patriots to get to a Super Bowl of their own.
This weekend in the NFL, the divisional playoff games took place. The final eight teams clashed to determine which four teams will battle for two spots in the Super Bowl.
In Saturday’s first game, the Seattle Seahawks got up on the Green Bay Packers 14-0 early. But then Brett Favre and the Packers fought back and dominated the rest of the game. The Packers pulled away and finished with a 42-20 victory.
In the second game on Saturday, the Jacksonville Jaguars played toe-to-toe against the undefeated New England Patriots for much of the game. However, Tom Brady was just too good and the Patriots led by Brady won 31-20.
On Sunday, the football world was turned upside down by two major upsets. First, the undermanned San Diego Chargers beat the Indianapolis Colts despite starting quarterback Philip Rivers and starting running back LaDainian Tomlinson both getting injured. The Colts, who are the reigning Super Bowl champions, failed to score on their last drive and lost 28-24.
In the second contest, the heavily favored Dallas Cowboys also failed to score on their final drive, allowing the New York Giants to prevail with a 21-17 victory. The Giants revenged two regular season losses against the Cowboys.
Next Sunday, the Chargers travel to play the Patriots in the AFC championship game, while the Giants go to Lambeau Field to play the Packers in the NFC championship game. The winners from each game will face off in the Super Bowl.
The LSU Tigers hoisted the BCS Championship trophy after their 38-24 victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes. LSU, which entered the game with two losses on the season, fell behind early but rallied for a convincing victory.
Ohio State got onto the board early in the ballgame when Chris Wells ran for a 65 yard touchdown. A bit over four minutes later, the Buckeyes added a field goal to go up 10-0 over the Tigers.
Despite the deficit, LSU remained calm. The Tigers got on the board late in the first quarter after connecting on a 32 yard field goal Early in the second quarter, quarterback Matt Flynn threw a 13 yard touchdown to Richard Dickson to tie the game. At the 7:25 mark of the second quarter, Flynn threw his second touchdown pass – this one to Brandon Lafell. The Tigers closed out the first half with a Jacob Hester one yard touchdown run to take a 24-10 lead into the locker room.
LSU came out after halftime and again found the endzone. This time, Flynn threw the touchdown pass to Early Doucet. Ohio State finally scored again late in the third quarter but it was too little, too late. The 31 points the Tigers scored in a row were more than enough as they held on to the victory. Flynn finished the game with four touchdown passes and was named as the game’s most outstanding offensive player, as LSU was crowned college football’s national champions.
With the 2007 NFL regular season a thing of the past, it’s time to start looking at the playoffs. While there were many great stories during the regular season, the playoffs will be what is remembered most about this season.
In the AFC, the New England Patriots became the first team to finish the regular season at 16-0. However, this season will lose much of its luster for the Patriots if they fail to bring home a championship. The Patriots and the defending Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts will have bye weeks in the first round of the playoffs in the AFC.
The two matchups in the first week of the playoffs in the AFC are the Jacksonville Jaguars at the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Tennessee Titans at the San Diego Chargers. While the Steelers and Chargers should be favorites, the Jaguars and Titans are more than capable of pulling an upset.
In the NFC, the Washington Redskins play the Seattle Seahawks and the New York Giants go against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers have bye weeks.
2007 NFL Regular Season Leaders
Football Resources
Coming into the 2007-08 NBA season, a lot of people picked the Chicago Bulls to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals. The Bulls were coming off a playoff where they swept the defending champion Miami Heat before losing to the Detroit Pistons. With basically their whole team returning and one more year of experience for their young players, things were looking up for the Bulls for the first time in a long time.
However, the season didn’t start as planned as the Bulls struggled – winning only nine of their first 25 games. Someone had to pay the price and it turned out to be Chicago’s head coach Scott Skiles. Skiles, who was fired on Christmas Eve, was in his fourth year with the Bulls and seemed to be one of the up-and-coming coaches in the league heading into the year.
The Bulls, who play next Wednesday against the San Antonio Spurs, haven’t named their next head coach. There’s a possibility that an assistant coach will be elevated to the head coaching spot. However, there’s also a possibility that the Bulls could bring in an experienced coach from the outside. Names such as Jeff Van Gundy and Larry Brown have begun to surface as potential candidates.
The final straw for Skiles was when the Bulls were humiliated at home against the Houston Rockets by a final score of 116-98 and the home fans booed the Bulls off the court. While general manager John Paxson has reportedly had talks of trading for big name players such as Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett, Paxson decided the direction the team needed to go in included a new head coach.
In the first game of the NFL Week 16 schedule, the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the St. Louis Rams by a final score of 41-24 on Thursday night to take another step toward the playoffs. The Steelers, who are 10-5 on the season, now control their own destiny in terms of making the playoffs.
Unfortunately however, Pittsburgh suffered a big loss in their Thursday night victory. Willie Parker, who entered the game leading the NFL in rushing yards, broke his leg on his first carry. Parker is expected to miss the rest of the season and the playoffs. His replacement, Najeh Davenport, played well – racking up 123 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
With only two more Sundays left in the regular NFL season, a lot of teams will be playing for their playoff lives this coming Sunday. One team, the New England Patriots, will be looking to keep their undefeated season alive when they host the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins, who are 1-13 on the season, won last week against the Baltimore Ravens to keep themselves out of the record book as being the first team in NFL history to go 0-16.
If the Patriots beat the Dolphins to improve to 15-0, the New York Giants will be the only team standing between the Patriots and the first 16-0 regular season in the history of the NFL.
