This assessment is made with no dog in the fight, but Cal got screwed. Granted they weren’t dominant against Southern Miss, but Hattiesburg is no easy assignment, especially when your All-American wide receiver Geoff McArthur gets knocked out of the game (twice) with injuries. I would love to hear the six coaches who dropped the Bears to 7th or lower justify their votes. But they won’t have to, as the coaches have voted twice this season to keep their votes secret.

Let’s compare Texas and Cal. Jeff Tedford’s gang beat Southern Miss by 10 while making no effort to notch a highly attainable touchdown late in the game. Did the writers and coaches who downgraded Cal last weekend also downgrade Texas after far luckier wins at Arkansas (22-20 unforced fumble with Hogs in FG range to win) and Kansas (BS offensive pass interference call on play that would have sealed the game for the Jayhawks)? Both Arkansas and Kansas finished the season with losing records, unlike Southern Miss.

Both 10-1, Texas and Cal saw their lone losses occur against the two teams that are playing for the national championship. Texas never really threatened Oklahoma in their neutral site game played in Dallas, losing 12-0 while being outgained 414-240 and giving up 24 first downs while earning only 13 themselves. Southern Cal won every home game this year by 31 or more with the exception of their 23-17 win over Cal. But Cal dominated that game, losing only due to special teams mistakes and turnovers. The Bears more than doubled SC’s yardage output 424-205 and notched 28 first downs to only 12 for the Trojans. While both teams had near misses during the season by any standard Cal’s performance against USC was significantly better than the Longhorn effort against Oklahoma.

Employees of Macy’s are apparently instructed not to talk about “Christmas” to customers and there is no reference to “Christmas” in their stores. I guess it would offend those patrons who show up looking to be offended. I’ll simply stay out of their way by shopping elsewhere. We’re hopeful that all of our readers enjoy all of their holidays, so Happy Hanukah to those of you celebrating the eight-day holiday that you’re currently smack dab in the middle of.

The following made me realize that the NFL should install temporary chain link fences in all stadiums that the Eagles play in as long as they continue to employ a certain wide receiver. Read this report in the Washington Post and tell me that you disagree, “A Portuguese soccer player lost a finger when he caught his wedding ring on a fence while celebrating a goal for his Swiss team. Paolo Diogo was injured after his late goal put Servette ahead, 4-1, Sunday against Schaffhausen. The ring ripped off the top of his finger. Before it was clear what happened, Diogo was cited by the referee for excessive celebration.” No chain link fence available? How about the NFL employing a football that emits poison gas when stepped on?

Our Strategic Sports Publishing Late Telephone service finished the season with a 71% winning record of 42-17 against the spread. We’re also winning in the NFL, with our 3-0 card last Sunday bringing us to better than 60% on the season in the NFL. Hoops are 4-0 on the week through Thursday’s action. Call our free hotline for free picks, analysis, updates, and special offers on our services. This free voice mail broadcast at 1-770-618-8700 is a free 24-hour service, so call any time.

The 2004 season has been proof that the best predictor of a quarterback’s success is having a good running attack and vice versa. There is no denying that Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Jason White, Matt Leinart, Aaron Rodgers and Jason Campbell are all having huge years. But a big reason for their success is Edgerrin James, Corey Dillon, Adrian Peterson, Reggie Bush, J.J. Arrington, and the Carnell Williams/Ronnie Brown duo. Defenses would get killed by the run if they went nickel package and shredded by the pass if they loaded up to stop the ground attack.

Who are the quarterbacks having big years with little run support? How about David Carr of the Texans and unheralded sophomore Drew Tate of Iowa? Only two teams in the NFL have a lower yard per run number than the Texans. Tate had a very good year despite Iowa ranking 117th (and last) in the country in rushing with less than 75 yards per game. Iowa saw four running backs and two fullbacks go down for the season yet at 9-2 are Big Ten co-champions. Amazing job by Hawkeye coach Kirk Ferentz.

Here’s a surprising fact. German boxer Max Schmeling, Hitler’s Aryan superman who was eviscerated by revenge-minded Joe Louis in a 1938 rematch of a 1936 bout, is still alive. 99 years old. My dad had a record album that included a recording of the rematch and it was very exciting to listen to the Yankee Stadium crowd go wild. Gotta love Google. It just took me about 20 seconds to find the call here: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5095/ and an excellent article about it here: http://www.sportingnews.com/archives/sports2000/moments/140271.html. I especially like FDR telling Louis, “Joe, we’re depending on those muscles for America.”

Since (as you certainly expected) we’re talking about Nazis and African American boxers, remember when Mike Tyson got out of prison and all the boxing writers were talking about how he did all this reading in prison and got a tattoo of Mao Tze Tung in prison? It was interpreted as a sign of Tyson’s maturity, some sort of intellectual awakening. Can you imagine the (deserved) outrage had Iron Mike been flaunting a tattoo of Hitler after being impressed by Mein Kampf? Yet Mao killed many, many times more people than Hitler did. I’ve never understood the Nazi/Communist double standard. Shouldn’t the outrage be equal?

Let’s stick with a theme that’s been working out well in this space. The “offensively challenged, defensively stout” Dolphins have now not played in a game that has gone under the total since October 3. In fact, the first quarter of their home game against Buffalo had 35 points scored on Sunday. Any other team on this kind of “over” run would have totals opening well into the 40’s. This total opened up 38½ and was actually bet under early. People just can’t beyond what they saw in September and get their arms around the fact that the Fins offense is better and defense is worse. Miami players are feeling little pressure as their games are relatively meaningless and as a result are wide open. Weather and Denver’s mindset may be issues, but we’ll ride this streak with the over.

Thanks for reading us this week. Good luck and be careful. If you’d like to get this newsletter directly via email you can do so by signing up at http://www.consumerbet.com/email.html. Remember to call our free hotline at 770-618-8700, a free 24-hour service with analysis and selections every game day.