It's BAAAACKK

Well it's that time again kids college football season!! This is the first pick em of the season as this weekend kicks off another season. I will be adding the pro teams in when pro season starts for Thomas and Rocket.

Purdue opens the 2012 campaign at home against Eastern Kentucky, in what some local weather officials are saying could be a monsoon thanks to Hurricane Isaac. So, Phats has his rain gear packed and ready for Saturday's game. If you'd like to watch it will be a 3:30 kickoff on Big Ten Network. I am not expecting a good crowd at all, 1 the weather, 2 season tickets are way down and will stay that way til we start winning again, and 3 the opponent. Can't take anyone lightly but lets just say if we don't win this one it will be a LONG year. It could be a fun year, as a lot of people are picking us as a dark horse in the B1G quite exciting so lets the games begin! As always if you want your team added, or if I forgot a team let me know. Flying solo week one, will get a guest picker next week.

Towson Tigers at Kent State Golden Flashes(DG)
Much better way to start the season for KSU rather than going to a power conference team to play should be a win for DG's Flashes!
KENT STATE 35 towson 10
FINAL SCORE KENT STATE 41 towson 21
WOOHOO

Tennessee Volunteers(Tiggy, Emily) at North Carolina State Wolfpack
SEC vs ACC you should always take the SEC.
TENNESSEE 28 nc state 14
FINAL TENNESSEE 35 nc state 21
WOOHOO

Northwestern State Demons at Texas Tech Red Raiders(Jef, Fuzz)
Should be over by halftime Red Raiders will roll
TEXAS TECH 61 northwestern state 10
FINAL TEXAS TECH 44 northwestern state 6
WOOHOO

Marshall Thundering Herd at West Virginia Mountaineers(angel jr)
I am interested in this game as in a few weeks the Herd come to Purdue. This is a pretty rivalry game I believe, so might stay close for awhile but the Eers will pull away
WEST VIRGINA 28 marshall 7
FINAL WEST VIRGINA 69 marshall 34
WOOHOO

Eastern Washington Eagles at Idaho Vandals(Shife)
I am ready to VTFU for this one, Vandals BETTER win and I think not only will they win they will roll making Shife a happy camper.
IDAHO 49 eastern washington 10
FINAL SCORE EASTERN WASHINGTON 20 idaho 3
D'oh

Southern Mississippi Eagles at Nebraska Cornhuskers(Travis)
This could be tricky So Miss has been decent in the past, but it's at Nebraska. Might stay close for awhile but Huskers put it on ice by 3rd quarter
NEBRASKA 35 southern mississippi 17
FINAL NEBRASKA 49 Southern Miss 20
WOOHOO

SE Louisiana Lions at Missouri Tigers(Nutz)
Might be the highlight for the Tigers whipping up on Non Conference teams since they switched to the SEC don't see them making much noise there
MISSOURI 59 sela 7
FINAL MISSOURI 63 sela 10
WOOHOO

Wyoming Cowboys at Texas Longhorns(Gary, Cheryl)
Should be a blowout might take a quarter or two to get there but HOOK EM HORNS
TEXAS 42 wyoming 10
FINAL TEXAS 37 wyoming 17
WOOHOO

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets(Emily) at Virignia Tech Hokies
WOW who the hell not only plays a conference game right off the bat, but who schedule this big duel that might determine a conference champ? I am not sure if these two are in the same division but man this is a huge opener. I am simply going by who has home field sorry Emily
VIRGINIA TECH 28 georgia tech 21

Michigan Wolverines at Alabama Crimson Tide(Gary, Cheryl, Booya)
OK just realized this is on a neutral field still sticking to my original pick
Why the hell does Bama never come to a Big Ten stadium?? This could be a good one and I hate scUM and think they are a tad overrated but I am rooting like hell for them to win this because Alabama has the most arrogant fans in the nation(not you cheryl and gary) if this were in the big house i'd take Michigan, but I think Bama will win a closer than expected game
ALABAMA 28 michigan 17
FINAL ALABAMA 41 michigan 14
WOOHOO

Clemson Tigers(Topolk, Emily) at Auburn Tigers
I gurentee the Tigers will win :) I have actually flip flopped on this game a million times I am not sure who to pick. The ACC is no longer good in football, and the bottom of the SEC could not only compete with most conference but beat them. I want to take Clemson for my blog friends but I just think Auburn pulls this out at home, another good opener both teams have bright futures ahead regardless of what happens here
AUBURN 35 clemson 28
FINAL CLEMSON 26 auburn 19
D'oh

Boise State Broncos(duck) at Michigan State Spartans
Another good game, and another one where I have gone back and forth. MSU is going to be a big ten contender this year, and I am not sure how good Boise is. One thing I know you're stupid if you bet against Boise, so I must be an idiot. Sorry Duck
MICHIGAN STATE 31 boise state 24
FINAL MICHIGAN STATE 17 boise state 13
WOOHOO

Eastern Kentucky Colonials at Purdue Boilermakers
This is like a 3/14 type NCAA tournament basketball game. Part of the reason Purdue is playing this game is Coach Hope started at EKU. I am excited to see this team after all the preseason hype and can they live up to it. It actually appears we might use 3 quarterbacks this year so it will be good to see how that works or doesn't. The only downside of this opener the weather hope everyone stays injury free, I have no problem sitting in rain but hoping no lightning delay. Boilers will roll get the season off to a 1-0 start and leave fans wondering til Notre Dame how good are really?
PURDUE 49 eastern kentucky 17
FINAL PURDUE 48 eastern kentucky 6
WOOHOO!!!!

Hail Hail to old Purdue all Hail to our old gold and black
Hail Hail to old Purdue our friendship may she never lack
Ever Grateful, ever true thus we raise our song a new FIRE UP!
Of the days we've spent with you, all Hail our own Purdue
GO BOILERS!

BTFU!!

TGIF

Everyone enjoy your weekend, time to put a stressful week behind me. Maybe go for a bike ride??
Phats

Olympic Size Hangover

Well, another amazing Olympics has come to an end and I have to say it was a great 2 weeks. I know some didn't like the Opening Ceremony but I did, and the Closing Ceremony was a fun way to end it a big concert. Of course a lot of this music was popular when most of these Olympians weren't born so could have probably been more up to date but still fun. I enjoyed the Spice Girls the most :) As for the games themselves of course USA ended on top of the medal count but it was close for awhile and we trailed the Chinese there for a few days but the Americans always rise to the top. Obviously my favorite events were Gymnastics and Swimming I will fully admit my interest waned a bit once those ended but I still watched. I got goosebumps when the Fierce 5 won the gold for team USA in women's gymnastics, and what a performance by Wieber to come back after the heartbreak of not making the All Around and perform like she did. However, the highlight of the night and the reason everyone should have known they would win gold was on rotation 1 when McKayla Maroney stuck her vault, the world's most difficult vault on the women's side it was amazing. Of course Gabby Douglas became the star of the team becoming the first African American to win the all around gold, and all people wanted to talk about was her hair?? Give me a break people seriously need to get a life. Heard 4 of the 5 say in interviews they want to keep training for Rio we shall see how that works out.

Everyone wanted to talk about Phelps vs Lochte in the swimming, but I think the real stars were on the women's team, Missy Franklin for one she was awesome!! What a personality she was bound for super stardom. It will be interesting to see if she sticks to her choice of turning down millions in endorsements to maintain eligibity for college. I also enjoyed watching Allison Schmidt(sp??) She seemed awesome and loved that she was so loose laughing and joking before her events and then boom turned it on in the pool. I am not a huge fan of Phelps, but it was neat to see him break the all time medals record. I do hesitate to tag him greatest Olympian of all time though swimming has so many more opportunities to win medals, what about Misty May and Kerri Walsh who won their 3rd straight gold never losing, and only losing 1 set?? Or Bolt he is a freak of nature on the track? So, I prefer to stick with calling him the most decorated :) What made me mad was his mom continuing to say I want him to train for Rio so I can go to Rio. I seriously would have told her get your fat ass in the pool and train then if you want to go so bad.

Other sports, I found myself getting into archery, maybe it was the Hunger Games influence, I also read on ESPN that Archery was the most watched sport on the cable networks meaning it beat soccer, and basketball. Again wonder how much of that was the influence of Katniss and the Hunger Games. Diving oh man I knew the results for the platform when Purdue's David Boudia won gold and I was still nervous!! That was a fantastic competition, and when Boudia got on the medal platform gave the Boiler Up arm how cool was that?! Sorry Shife and Travis just never got into the soccer I watched a few mins of one of the prelim games and I will say I am a fan of Wambach, and I am happy they won gold. So, who all watched?? What was your favorite events, favorite performer at the closing ceremony??

For those that asked Holiday World was AWESOME!! We had a great time and the weather was perfect. 13 of us went and we left our house at 6:40am to meet at my sister's and got there around noon which was technically 11 in the county we were in. Did the amusement park the first day which meant COASTERS!! I can proudly say I got 4 bruises on my back from the Legend, at first I thought it was three but my sister pointed another out when we were at the water park. I actually for the first time in going to amusement parks bought an on ride picture. I took my nephew on the Voyage for the first time in his life and it's one of the biggest wooden coasters in the world and the faces were priceless so I splurged and got it for him to keep. I have to say though my sister owes me I almost got like rug burn from trying to hold him in. I am not a huge fan of water parks for a lot of reasons, but Holiday World has one of the best around. I had a great time there too except my feet hurt bad. The highlight was riding their new water coaster which holds six so My sister, one of her sons, our friend Lisa, and I were in a raft with 2 strangers and my sister proceeded to cuss all the way through the ride because she wasn't a fan it was great!! After the water park closed we closed down the amusment park side leaving around 10 our time. Got back home at 3:40am ya it was a long ride. Although riding in my sister's van had perks like getting to watch The Great Outdoors, and The Blindside on the way home. Oh yeah we stayed in a creepy little town that reminded me of a Stephen King novel.

Well, the train is coming kids with it August football season is right around the corner and the first week these came in the mail to which I shrieked with excitementI think we're gonna be decent, I could see us going 7-5, 6-6 again I know to some of you that doesn't sound good but we're still trying to turn a corner. Our division really opened up in the Big Ten with OSU and PSU both not eligible to play for the Big Ten title, means it's Wisconsin, IU, Illinois, and us competitng for the leader's division. Should be interesting.

That's all I got for ya I am going to need guest pickers again this year if people are interested again :)
Phats

Holiday World!!!

Thought i'd do a quick but it will probably be a rather long update. So, I am pretty excited because we are going to Holiday World tomorrow woohooo!! For those that don't know Holiday World is an AWESOME amusement park in Santa Claus, Indiana. I am really looking forward to it for a lot of reasons, 1 I love roller coasters, and 2 it's been a few years since I have been there. The only bad part it's a long ass drive about 4 hours from here and we're stopping in Indianapolis to pick up the rest of the family. What makes Holiday World not only great but one of a kind is all they offer for free. First off they don't charge you to park, second free sunscreen in their water park, and free inner tube use, however the best perk of all free soft drinks!! They have what's called pepsi oasis stations throughout the park and you just help yourself. The best ride there in my opinion is called the Voyage a wooden roller coaster. Here is the first hillThey also have an amazing water park and just opened the world's longest water coaster so pretty stoked to go on that too. Now if only I didn't have to ride in a car with my relatives! haha it's ok I will hopefully sleep.

So lets talk Olympics, I am hooked. Not a surprise I knew I would be, started with an amazing Opening Ceremony I was completely jamming to the music. Of course the best part for me is the parade of nations, I will admit I got goosebumps when the good old US of A walked in, but my favorite group and I am not even sure what to call them because I don't remember what they were called were the Independent Athletes. They were totally hamming it up and dancing loved them. It's no secret that my favorite part of the Olympics is the gymnastics it's what I spent most of childhood doing and doing well, so I always love to watch it. For the men's competition I hate to say this but I saw the US meltdown coming and not just because I read it before it happened online. It was amazing they qualified number 1 and actually gave us hope they could do it, but they completely choked in finals. Lets face it team finals is relentless 3 up 3 count can be down right brutal. Hopefully they will learn from this, and be ready for Rio because they are all young we could potentially see these same 5 in the next Olympics.

Now the women's competition that started with a bang in qualification. I can't believe the reigning world champion didn't make the All Around. I know a lot of people are outraged over this, Bela Karolyi still, but we all knew the 2 per country rule going in it's not like it's a surprise. That being said I would rather see the best 24 athletes compete tomorrow and lets face it Jordyn is probably better than at least 20 of them. They changed the rule from 3 to 2 after the Romanian women swept the podium in the 00 games, but I wonder if this will make them review the process for Rio. However, lets also say way to go Aly for making it, people tend to forget she was 4th at world's in 2011 and that was with 2 MAJOR mistakes on bars. I look for it to be a battle though between Douglass and Komova from Russia. Lets get back to the team final though wow what a night for the US! I purposely avoided spoilers all day so I wouldn't know and I was really glad I did that. Although I should have known we won it after vault when all three nailed their amanars highlighted by McKayla Maroney's stick, and lets face it the judges blew that she should have gotten a perfect score for that. Bars always makes me nervous with this group but they did a solid job and then the Russians fell apart. I have never seen someone abort a tumbling pass in such a major competition, and they didn't show that the 3rd Russian also fell. The 2 best moments of the night though were team captain Aly in tears before her floor routine ended, and Jordyn's reaction when Aly finished it was in a word GOLDEN!

Love the swimming too, and while everyone wants to talk Lochte and Phelps, two women have stolen the show of course everyone knows Franklin, and now Allison Schmidt. Fun to watch this sport and I find myself screaming at the tv when they are finishing. Sad both Gymnastics and Swimming are coming to a close.

Other sports I have watched really got into the archery watching the men's team from USA take silver, maybe it's the Hunger Games influence? Water Polo hello that sport is crazy, and physically demanding not sure I could do it. Neat seeing Purdue diver David Boudia team up in synchro and take home a bronze, and how about Handball another odd sport. I even watched some women's soccer Shife and Travis should be proud. However, I will say this I found myself really liking and wanting to root for Abby Wambach, on the flip side I can't stand Hope Solo. I hate the game soccer, adn she did nothing to help me like it more. I remember back when she was going to be on Dancing with the stars hearing all the stories of how she verbally went after her coach on twitter, that's not cool no matter what the situation. Now she is going after a pioneer of the women's game?? Like I said I hate soccer it's a ridiculous sport and a total bore, but that said I know who Brandi Chastain is. Solo went after her on twitter for how she was broadcasting, and honestly I don't find what she said offensive?? After reading some online stories almost everyone sided with Chastain, do they have bad a relationship or something? I hope they win gold, and I hope they get Solo a muzzle. And just to be fair let me criticize my own sport of tennis when Ryan Harrison had his outburst after losing round one I was EMBARRASSED, that should never happen at the Olympics. However, he at his own doing asked to get on tv the next day and address it.

So, what sports are you most enjoying?? What do you think of the coverage, wish it were live? I did at first but man NBC is completely bringing in the ratings Tuesday it peaked with Phelps breaking the all time record for medals, and the US women taking gold in gymnastics. I think it will end up one of the most watched.

That's all I should probably pack and get to bed early wake up call.
Phats