Some bold predictions for 2012
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01/02/2012 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The turn of the calendar brings so much promise.
New Year's resolutions are made and two weeks later, gyms will be back to normal attendance rates. Cigarette sales will return to averages and people will abandon any notions of improvement.
Is it cynical? Of course, but statistics bear out the positions. Personal experience accounts for some of those beliefs as well, but January is also a time for fearless predictions of the year to come.
So here are some thoughts on what we might see for 2012.
- Tiger Woods will win again, but not a major championship.
His victory at the Chevron World Challenge was something, but not a firm indicator he is back. If we take Woods at his word that injuries more than anything accounted for a down 2011, then he should have a productive 2012.
Woods will be two full years removed from the scandal and the more time that passes on that front, the better. He got that winning taste back in his mouth and that could lead to the old feelings.
No matter what, it's naive to think Woods would never win on tour again after the car accident. Why not 2012? He's indicated he will play at least one event he normally didn't, so it seems he's at least mildly interested in teeing it up more often.
- Yani Tseng makes a serious push for the single-season Grand Slam.
She is so clearly the best player in the world and dominance has run rampant on the LPGA Tour since 2000. First, Annika was unbeatable, then it was Lorena, and now it's Yani.
Both Sorenstam and Ochoa failed to threaten that single-season Slam, but if you can believe this, neither was as good a closer in majors as is Tseng already.
She only needs the Women's British Open for the career slam, and, she'll be 23 in mid-January. Tseng should still be carded in a state store, but she's so far ahead of the pace of her contemporaries, it's comical.
Tseng won two majors in 2011, but probably should've had a third. She didn't contend at the U.S. Women's Open. The chance at immortality could be too much to overcome, but Tseng's competition isn't as strong as Annika's or Lorena's. Cristie Kerr, Jiyai Shin and Ai Miyazato all regressed to some degree in 2011.
- The U.S. wins the Ryder Cup, then David Toms and Paul McGinley get the 2014 captaincies.
- The PGA Tour explores ways to get the season-opener out of Hawaii because attendance at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions is worse than Senior Cut Day. (It won't work.)
- No one gets suspended for failing a drug test.
- Jason Kokrak is your next PGA Tour star from the Nationwide Tour.
- Lexi Thompson struggles as a member of the LPGA Tour. Remember, she can't vote yet, so a full season of pressure like that will wear on her.
- The FedExCup playoffs will be better thanks to the additions of Bethpage and Crooked Stick to the rotation.
- The No. 1 player at the end of 2012 will be Lee Westwood, who wins the British Open.
- Pace of play in young golfers doesn't improve and my health is jeopardized becoming angry about it.
- Fred Couples dominates the Champions Tour without having to worry about the Presidents Cup captaincy. As a bonus prediction, Couples' name gets kicked around for '14 Ryder Cup gig, but he's dubbed "too old."
- He and Nick Price are the 2013 Presidents Cup captains.
- Phil Mickelson gets twitter and bores us to death with it.
- Rory McIlroy struggles a bit in 2012 after enormous expectations and celebrity status.
- People continue to complain about long putters, but nothing happens because they are completely legal and that will never change.
- Major winners - Masters (Adam Scott), U.S. Open at Olympic (Steve Stricker), British Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes (Westwood) and PGA Championship at Kiawah Island (Alvaro Quiros).
For now, the crystal ball gets put away with the Christmas ornaments.
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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
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The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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