Poker champ Greg Raymer was accosted outside his room at the Bellagio following a recent session in the Vegas casino’s poker room. A pair of assailants, one wielding a gun, tried to rob Raymer of the $150,000 he had with him. The unarmed Raymer fought back and the thugs fled. Glad he’s OK, but why isn’t he using the safety deposit boxes at the Bellagio like the rest of the Vegas gambling world?

The new divisional structure in the NFL has really diminished the excitement in the last couple of weeks of the season. It is remarkable how little is at stake this weekend. The lines have reacted accordingly. A couple of weeks ago I was excited about getting a field goal or so with the Bills at home in their finale against the Steelers. Now Buffalo is laying more than a TD? No thanks.

College bowl line moves have been interesting. North Carolina was favored by 4 points or more against BC when word came that Paul Pederson would likely play QB for BC. That dropped the line down to around 2½ or 3. When it was announced that he would definitely play BC actually ended up favored in places, despite the fact that the information was already in the line. We’ve seen a number of other bowl games have significant line moves, with the favorite changing in the Iowa State/Miami-O and Troy State/ Northern Illinois games. Big line moves also in Colorado/UTEP, Minnesota/Alabama, and Ohio State/Oklahoma State games. The “mere” 2-point moves are too numerous to mention. Mixed results with the line moves, as is usually the case. For both those catching the early moves, those following, and those buying back late all winning some and losing some.

Speaking of bowls, a news story I read recently stated, “Minnesota has sold 3,000 tickets to the Music City bowl, the most tickets purchased by Gopher fans for a bowl game since Minnesota brought 4,000 fans to the 1999 Sun Bowl.” This is not the kind of item that gets bowl administrators worked up into a lather about inviting your school to a game in the future

Basketball lifer Tom Penders, who now coaches at Houston, had some complaints about the officiating in the Cougars loss at Washington. "The University of Washington is a fine basketball team, but I would love to play them on a neutral floor, or in Houston and I think we'd beat them," said Penders. "That was a disgrace. The officiating was a disgrace."

Certainly Penders isn’t the first coach to complain about the officiating. But he’s certainly the first to complain so vehemently about a 47-point loss. That’s right, Houston lost 110-63, turning the ball over 22 times while registering just 20 field goals. But Penders wuz robbed.

Our bowls have not been what we hoped, but in all four major categories so far this year, my Strategic Sports Publishing selections service is over 60%. Better than 60% in college football, NFL football, college basketball and NBA basketball. That’s 60% for all plays, not just recently or in some certain category. All plays. We rate our plays equally and don’t have games of the year, games of the month, etc. If it is worth a play it is worth a play. This string of over 60% records is completely documented by the Sports Monitor and in all sports we’re a combined 98-52 (65.3%) as of Thursday, December 30th. If you want to take advantage of our special football/basketball combos or just want either sport call me in the office at 1-770-649-1078. You can also call our free pick line at 1-770-618-8700 for free analysis and updates.

Utah’s had a dream season while Pitt got real, real lucky. The Panthers lucked out with a combination of lucky upsets (BC beats WV despite losing yardage by 200+, refs help Pitt beat WV, and Syracuse crushed a Pederson-less BC). Despite making the BCS, Pitt coach Walt Harris wasn’t terribly welcome as the university brass made little effort to renew his expiring contract. As a result, Harris is now the coach at Stanford. Utah’s Urban Meyer is on his way to Florida. DC Kyle Wittingham is the new Ute head man, lending some continuity to the process. But offensive coordinator Mike Samford is now the coach of UNLV. The Utes have two head coaches and the players have admitted that it has caused some chemistry problems. Pittsburgh has similar issues with their assistant coaches, and they’ll have a new head coach announced with the old one still hanging around. With the huge (but justifiable) number in this game and the coaching carousel at both schools, it is very difficult to project what kind of performance we’re going to get from these teams. But with both coaches on their way out, the offensive game planning will likely be extremely loosey-goosey. Look at the over in the Fiesta Bowl.

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.