More News and a Mid-Week Scramble

Since we have been light on posts ourselves, and since our recently assembled murderers' row of authors has been short on content as well, we have added another author to the mix. He will bring the L.A. perspective to the mix (that's Lower Alabama, not Los Angeles, y'all), presumably concentrated on football, baseball, and basketball. He is certainly capable and knowledgable, so we look forward to his contributions. Also, we are rolling out a new weekly feature called The Scramble. This will be a stream of consciousness type of round up hitting the high points on several sporting fronts. The Scramble will feature some news, some analysis, opinions, and other random thoughts that popped into our heads in the last week. Without further ado, here is the first:

The Scramble

College Basketball: Kevin Durant certainly looks to us to be a better player right now than Greg Oden. We're not saying that he will be better at the next level, but he's better today. In some local news, Georgia Tech bested Florida State Tuesday night for their first road win since the Millard Fillmore administration. Are the Jackets tournament worthy? We'll find out soon enough with upcoming tilts against UNC, Duke, Virginia, and Boston College.

Major League Baseball: Be on the lookout for the Atlanta Braves this season. After last year's disappointing showing, the Braves now feature arguably the best back end of the bullpen in the bigs. They also possess the best defensive outfield in baseball for at least one more year. If the starting pitching and Chipper Jones can stay healthy, they figure to have a say in which team will represent the NL in the World Series. Not saying they're winning the division, probably wild card, but they should make the playoffs.

Boxing: Watched Shane Moseley last Saturday night. He looked pretty good, but, then again, his opponent looked bad enough that we won't even mention his name.

NASCAR: The Daytona 500 is Sunday and our money, even though we hate to say it, is on Tony Stewart. He looked extremely fast in the Bud Shootout Saturday night, and, if he can keep his car in one piece through the Gatorade Duels on Thursday, he is probably the man to beat.

College Football: Here is some research we did last week. We couldn't figure what to make of it, so we decided to post it and let you figure it out. Normally we would have discarded the info, but it took so long to compile that we felt we owed it to ourselves to use it for something. Enjoy.

National Champions Since 1986 and Combined Records in the Following Two Years

2004 USC 23-3

2003 LSU 20-5

2002 Ohio State 19-6

2001 Miami (Fl) 23-3

2000 Oklahoma 23-4

1999 Florida State 19-6

1998 Tennessee 17-4

1997 Michigan 20-5

1997 Nebraska 21-5

1996 Florida 20-4

1995 Nebraska 24-2

1994 Nebraska 23-2

1993 Florida State 20-3-1

1992 Alabama 21-4-1

1991 Washington 16-7

1991 Miami (Fl) 20-3

1990 Colorado 17-5-2

1990 Georgia Tech 13-11

1989 Miami (Fl) 21-3

1988 Notre Dame 21-4

1987 Miami (Fl) 22-2

1986 Penn State 13-10

Editor's Note: Texas (2005) was not included as they have not completed two seasons since winning the National Championship. Co-champions are listed for 1990, 1991, and 1997 but not 2003 since the BCS Championship Game guarantees #1 vs. #2 with the winner being crowned the National Champion.