Parity on display

Among all the things that makes football the top sport in the country, parity is one of the major attractions. NFL has been all about parity the last few years, may be for a decade or so. There are several stats to prove this point like how most Super Bowl losers, and sometime even champions don't even make it to the playoffs the next year, let alone repeat as champions. The 2010 Saints seem to be very much on track to do their bit to fortify that stat. This year has been especially messy and confusing. There are no dominant teams, no clear-cut favorite and most pre-season favorites, especially in the NFC are barely 500. As a matter of fact, I think the entire NFC might be 500 or below soon :-J This week had it's share of head scratching results as always. San Diego lost to Saint Louis and Seattle beat Chicago - a bad team with a decent record. As I am typing, Colts are trying hard to give the game away to the Redskins - they have fumbled away the ball the last 3 possessions. Steelers, Ravens and the Jets look to be the best and most consistent teams so far. The Colts, Saints, Eagles and the Falcons look decent, but not great. Giants and the Vikings seem to be coming back. Packers seem to be going down. Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco look horrible - to various degrees of course. Thats the story of the season in a nutshell.

The parity bug has also spread to college football over the last few years. It used to be that we always heard of the Texas and the Ohio States and the USC and Floridas of the world all the time in college. But then came Boise State and TCU and these days, "mid-majors" like those have become a regular fixture in the top 10. The number one seed has now lost 2 weeks in a row. Alabama lost last week at South Carolina and Ohio State lost at Wisconsin this weekend. Both good results from my perspective. Undefeated Nebraska lost to Texas after Texas lost badly the last 2 weeks to UCLA and Oklahoma. South Carolina turned around and lost on the road to Kentucky this weekend. That falls on the ole' ball coach as Spurrier went for the touchdown rather than go for the tying field goal at the end of the game. QB Stephen Garcia ended up throwing an interception instead - ballgame Kentucky. All these results add up to a dizzying landscape in the college ranks this year. Boise State was rumored to be number one or two in the BCS standings. But then the actual BCS ranking did come out and Boise was at 3 behind Oklahoma and Oregon. That sucks because I would have loved nothing more than a Boise State - Oregon championship game. That would have been the worst nightmare come true for the old time purists from the East coast. Now, it's going to be an uphill climb for Boise State because the computers are going to continue to penalize them for an easy schedule that will get only easier over the next few weeks. Of course, do we really believe Oregon or Oklahoma will stay undefeated through the rest of the season? It's especially hard to do for Oregon in the Pac-10. But we shall see. Boise State itself might have a tough game on hand against Nevada later in the weekend.

In MLB, probably a bad example of parity, the Yankees are as usual doing their thing in the playoffs. You can kill even the roaches, but beating the Yankees is so hard. As a fan of a team, you are never comfortable with leads. You are always afraid that the other team is going to come back and catchup with you - fan paranoia. But you have to multiply this fear 10 times over if you are playing the Yankees. I really doubt how many Ranger fans were really comfortable when they were up 5-1 in game 1. Sure enough, Yankees come back and win it 6-5 late in the game. Talking heads on TV will call it the Yankees mystique and aura. I call it a 200 million dollar payroll and a bad financial system in the MLB. I hate to quote Curt Schilling, but he nailed it during the World Series when he was playing for the DBacks when he said mystique and aura are nothing but names of strippers. Whatever it is, the Rangers suffered a horrible loss in game 1 and full credit to them for coming back and winning game 2. I still have to believe they lost the series in game 1. In the NL, Halladay and Lincecum went head-to-head in one of the most anticipated pitching contests. We got a good game, but neither looked that great. There were 3 homers in the game, but the Giants got the W at the end of the "torture". This dude Cody Ross has hit 4 home runs in 3 playoff games - 2 against Halladay. Thanks to Oswalt, Philly evened the series today. This series might go 7, but the Phillies might have the edge.