September - Kansas City Sports & Fitness Magazine

T
Just how valid are college football predictions?
his is a wonderful time of the year.
The hot, hot summer is closing
and it is time for college football.
Unfortunately, in Kansas City
this is the time of the year where
the Royals start to unload talent,
bring up the next batch of potential
superstars and begin their annual
rebuilding process. It’s like clockwork.
To tell the truth, I sometimes get
irritated with the Royals at this point
of the season when they knock off
other teams that have a chance to
make the playoffs. The Royals season
was over sometime in June. Why ruin
someone else’s season? Just roll over
and play dead until next season and
start the process over again.
Maybe that’s why college football is so
exciting. The media starts highlighting the
top teams, players to watch, injuries,
suspensions, transfers, etc., and most
come out with their annual predictions.
No publication does more research or
has more clout when picking the top teams
than Sports Illustrated. When SI makes
predictions about the season they aren’t
just suggestions, they are etched on stone
tablets somewhere. You can take them to
the bank.
Or, can you? I really don’t know. So this
year I have decided that for the first time in
my life I am going to actually check how
well SI does on its predictions. SI’s
“College Preview” issue (with “40 pages
of scouting reports”) came out in August
and here are its Top 10 Teams:
1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Boise State
4. Texas
5. TCU
6. Iowa
7. Florida
8. Oregon
9. Nebraska
10. Virginia Tech
The Associated Press has Alabama
first, my Buckeyes second (Did I ever
tell you Ohio State coach Jim Tressel
and I graduated in the same year from
Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio?
It’s a great trivia question), and Boise,
which has by far the easiest schedule of
any of the contenders or pretenders, third.
The rest includes (in order) Florida, Texas,
TCU, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa and
Virginia Tech.
When the dust clears on the college bowl
season I will compare
the final SI rankings and
its fearless predictions
with the actual results.
At that point we all can
learn how well the
“experts” are on their
predictions.
I have a gut feeling
their fearless predictions
will not hold up well
over the entire season.
Maybe they will. As they
say in radio, “stay tuned.”
John
Landsberg
Contributing
Writer
John Landsberg can be reached at
jlandsberg@bottomlinecom.com.
LILJA| FROM PAGE 6
type of senior bowl games, the Chiefs
probably thought I’d continue under the
radar. Fortunately for me, the Colts were
watching. It worked out great. Again,
I think the Chiefs made the right decision
at the time, but it backfired on them.
SRKC: What was your attraction to
coming back to the Chiefs outside of home?
RL: Three other teams were interested.
My criteria came down to a good fit and the
money had to be right. As I was talking to
people I trusted who were advising me,
they kept pointing out that it’s rare for guys
to have an opportunity to play for their
hometown team. It’s rare. I can’t name any
of my buddies with the Colts who did that.
As I thought about that possibility, I got
really excited. Everything worked well here
so I signed.
SRKC: You’re coming from a great
organization that was incredibly successful,
especially under coach Tony Dungy with
Manning as the quarterback. Talk about
playing there, and being in the huddle with
Manning.
RL: Manning is one of those dudes
who’s a perfectionist and he tries nonstop,
day in and day out, to perfect his craft in
every aspect. He’s really in tune to his
training and computing defenses. Nobody
out-works him. It was cool to be in the
huddle with him. They treated me just like
anybody else and held me accountable just
like anybody else. Tony Dungy is one of
the finest individuals I’ve ever been around.
It was an honor to play for him.
You can catch the K-State Power Hour
with Jason Spalitto and J.D. Higgason each
Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. with a replay
at p.m. on SportsRadioKC.com.
KANSAS CITY SPORTS & FITNESS SEPTEMBER 2010 9