I have won my first 11 games on chess.com.

This must be the same feeling a middling college basketball team gets running up the record on weak non-conference opponents.

They know by the time March comes around, their conference record will be 8-8. And they’ll be praying that their single signature win is good enough to land them in the NCAA tournament.

It took the LSU football squad more than 3/4 of a day to get home after the national championship game.

Turns out some prankster painted a 50-yard line in front of the team bus.

Before you people get jealous, you should know that flying in a rocket ship is completely overrated.

Today, we discover Santa’s true motifs. Or motives.

Good news! Sort of. We are doing a Christmas story this year!

Let me know if the font is too hard to read. I will change it.

The BCS is better than the playoffs when it comes to determining a “true” national champion this year.

To put it in the simplest terms, a playoff would have meant that LSU would have had to play even more games to win the championship. People forget this when arguing for a playoff. Each additional game is a chance for LSU to lose what almost everyone agrees they deserve.

Let’s see what 4- and 8-team playoffs would have meant mathematically.

Hypothetical Numbers #1: Let’s be incredibly generous and say LSU is so good, they would beat any top 8 team 90% of the time.
Under the BCS, LSU would have a 90% chance to be crowned national champions.
In a 4-team playoff, it drops to 81%.
In an 8-team playoff, that drops again to 72%.

Hypothetical Numbers #2: Something a bit closer to reality, but still generous: LSU would beat Alabama 60% of the time, OK St 70% of the time, and the rest of the top 8 80% of the time.

Under the BCS, LSU has a 60% chance or 70% chance to be crowned national champions (depending on who ends up #2).

The math for the playoff systems is more difficult. In a 4-team system, LSU would be playing #4 then the winner of Alabama vs OK St. The chance of LSU winning the championship is somewhere between 48% and 56%. While the exact number depends on the odds of Alabama vs. OK St., it’s not much better than a coin flip.

In an 8-team system, obviously, it’s even worse. If LSU gets lucky and doesn’t have to play #2 or #3, they would have only a 51% chance to win all 3 games. The odds are somewhere between 38% and 51%, depending on the odds of #2 and #3 making it to the national title game.

I’m well aware playoff proponents will argue that the playoffs are better anyway because things are decided “on the field”. And that’s fine, as long as they are aware of what they are getting. There are simply too few games played during the football season to have a high degree of confidence that a “true” national champion was crowned, whatever the system.

Lesson 2: A vital part of commentating on sports is to criticize the playcalling with the benefit of hindsight. You should ignore the fact that even good coaching decisions have a chance to fail.

This is especially effective when you point out that you agreed with the initial call, making you a hypocrite.

Let’s look at ESPN’s Pat Yasinskas’ blog to give us a perfect example:

When Mike Smith first decided to go for it on fourth-and-inches in overtime, I liked the call. I thought it was gutsy and ambitious. After watching Michael Turner get stuffed, I changed my mind. Smith should have punted and taken his chances with his defense.

Hey, no one said sports commentary had to make any sense.

So I did not dress as Tim Tebow. It was really Natasha Fatale from Rocky & Bullwinkle:

Unfortunately, I do not have more pictures or a video at this time, which would have showed off my heels and sexy legs.

I donned this costume over two weekends. The first time had the additional benefit of make-up. A couple people were actually fooled enough to very briefly mistake me for a female.

A few females also expressed dismay that my legs were better than theirs, and it didn’t seem like they were completely joking. I don’t know whether to be flattered or not.

Last night for Halloween, I dressed as Tim Tebow. When the kids came by for candy, I threw it at their feet.*

* Not really. But I’ve seen this joke a few times and thought it was hilarious.