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2023 March Madness - failure is an option.

by: The Cold Hard Truth


Another year and another fine showing for the Big 12 and Big 10 conferences. Or was it? Teams from the these two conferences spent the last half of the season playing each other, and regardless of who won, the needle hardly moved in the Net Rankings or the Kenpom or in any other rating system you can think of. If you look at the strength of schedule numbers on the Kenpom, you'll see the entire Big 12 has lofty numbers from top to bottom, and it is true that on certain days, those teams played great. How can we explain the bizarre 25 point victory by the cellar dweller Oklahoma Sooners had against top ranked Alabama? However, even more confusing to me is how Iowa State lost 8 of 10 games including a 17 point loss to Missouri and is still a 6 seed with a Net Ranking of 20? We watched Oklahoma State, supposedly the last team out, go 18-15 and still be in the conversation. Congratulations to OSU on their recent 5 point victory over Youngstown State in the NIT. Yet Vandy has a stretch where they went 10-1, beat Tennessee, Auburn, and Kentucky twice and is on the outside looking in. They were 5th in the SEC, yet teams that finished 3 games behind them in conference are in this tournament. At the beginning of the year, we saw the Cyclones beat North Carolina and Villanova on back to back nights and from that point on, there was no stopping the Big 12 computer numbers. Those wins don't look as good now as they did then. Yes, Kansas, Texas, Kansas State, Baylor, TCU and Iowa State are good, but how many of these teams are great? I feel like there might be 2 or 3 out of the 6. The Big 10 - I wouldn't be surprised if Purdue is the only team that makes the Elite 8.

I have to mention this bizarre stat. For years, we have seen teams win games because of rebounding. Kelvin Sampson has made a living at teaching his teams to rebound, including his current Houston team, and they win games. However, let's take a look at Missouri this year. They are 24-9 with 6 Quad 1 wins. Yet, they have been outrebounded in all but 3 games, and those three teams were Southeast Missouri, Lindenwood, and Southern Indiana. They failed to outrebound a single SEC team this year but finished 4th in conference. You can't blame experts of favoring 10 seed Utah State, but it could be a fun first round game.

There are a lot of intriguing teams. I don't know much about UConn and Marquette, but their numbers suggest they are good enough to make a run. I don't think Kentucky is a legitimate 6 seed, but they have played better recently than during the first half of the season. I heard a stat the other day that when Duke is completely healthy and has all its players, they were 18-1 this season with an overtime loss. Are they a team that can make a run? Finally, the Selection Committee should be ashamed of their #7 seeding of Texas A&M. No,I'm not an Aggie or a fan, but they went 15-3 in conference and were legitimately the second best team in their conference. They are a dangerous team, and I think the potential second round matchup with Texas could be an incredible game. The winner of that game could be around a long time.

We have another collection of terrific mid-major teams. Oral Roberts, Florida Atlantic and Charleston are all 30 game winners. Are the Iona players ready to make a run for their coach Rick Patino who is rumored to be leaving after this season? We always hope these teams can make a deep run, but I'm not sure most of us have the skill to actually pick the team who will do it. I know I can't do that, and each year seems to be more difficult than the last. However,at least qualitatively, I can say that teams like Loyola of Chicago, Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), George Mason, Saint Peters, or any of the other Cinderellas from the past had a goto guy that could score and athleticism. Add in a little heart and you have a story.

So that's the scoop. I won't bash the Pac-12 this year just in case Arizona and UCLA are actually good. I do worry that teams like Houston, the Bruins, and the Volunteers might have some injuries they can't overcome, but they all have deep talent. Sometimes that's enough.

It is going to be a great tournament, but just like any other year, the computers and the humans are both wrong. Best of luck to all our CBCC competitors sorting out the facts from the fiction. March Madness has arrived!
stories/23_cbcc_intro.html

2023 March Madness - failure is an option.

by: The Cold Hard Truth


Another year and another fine showing for the Big 12 and Big 10 conferences. Or was it? Teams from the these two conferences spent the last half of the season playing each other, and regardless of who won, the needle hardly moved in the Net Rankings or the Kenpom or in any other rating system you can think of. If you look at the strength of schedule numbers on the Kenpom, you'll see the entire Big 12 has lofty numbers from top to bottom, and it is true that on certain days, those teams played great. How can we explain the bizarre 25 point victory by the cellar dweller Oklahoma Sooners had against top ranked Alabama? However, even more confusing to me is how Iowa State lost 8 of 10 games including a 17 point loss to Missouri and is still a 6 seed with a Net Ranking of 20? We watched Oklahoma State, supposedly the last team out, go 18-15 and still be in the conversation. Congratulations to OSU on their recent 5 point victory over Youngstown State in the NIT. Yet Vandy has a stretch where they went 10-1, beat Tennessee, Auburn, and Kentucky twice and is on the outside looking in. They were 5th in the SEC, yet teams that finished 3 games behind them in conference are in this tournament. At the beginning of the year, we saw the Cyclones beat North Carolina and Villanova on back to back nights and from that point on, there was no stopping the Big 12 computer numbers. Those wins don't look as good now as they did then. Yes, Kansas, Texas, Kansas State, Baylor, TCU and Iowa State are good, but how many of these teams are great? I feel like there might be 2 or 3 out of the 6. The Big 10 - I wouldn't be surprised if Purdue is the only team that makes the Elite 8.

I have to mention this bizarre stat. For years, we have seen teams win games because of rebounding. Kelvin Sampson has made a living at teaching his teams to rebound, including his current Houston team, and they win games. However, let's take a look at Missouri this year. They are 24-9 with 6 Quad 1 wins. Yet, they have been outrebounded in all but 3 games, and those three teams were Southeast Missouri, Lindenwood, and Southern Indiana. They failed to outrebound a single SEC team this year but finished 4th in conference. You can't blame experts of favoring 10 seed Utah State, but it could be a fun first round game.

There are a lot of intriguing teams. I don't know much about UConn and Marquette, but their numbers suggest they are good enough to make a run. I don't think Kentucky is a legitimate 6 seed, but they have played better recently than during the first half of the season. I heard a stat the other day that when Duke is completely healthy and has all its players, they were 18-1 this season with an overtime loss. Are they a team that can make a run? Finally, the Selection Committee should be ashamed of their #7 seeding of Texas A&M. No,I'm not an Aggie or a fan, but they went 15-3 in conference and were legitimately the second best team in their conference. They are a dangerous team, and I think the potential second round matchup with Texas could be an incredible game. The winner of that game could be around a long time.

We have another collection of terrific mid-major teams. Oral Roberts, Florida Atlantic and Charleston are all 30 game winners. Are the Iona players ready to make a run for their coach Rick Patino who is rumored to be leaving after this season? We always hope these teams can make a deep run, but I'm not sure most of us have the skill to actually pick the team who will do it. I know I can't do that, and each year seems to be more difficult than the last. However,at least qualitatively, I can say that teams like Loyola of Chicago, Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), George Mason, Saint Peters, or any of the other Cinderellas from the past had a goto guy that could score and athleticism. Add in a little heart and you have a story.

So that's the scoop. I won't bash the Pac-12 this year just in case Arizona and UCLA are actually good. I do worry that teams like Houston, the Bruins, and the Volunteers might have some injuries they can't overcome, but they all have deep talent. Sometimes that's enough.

It is going to be a great tournament, but just like any other year, the computers and the humans are both wrong. Best of luck to all our CBCC competitors sorting out the facts from the fiction. March Madness has arrived!

PFCC/NFL - Week 15: Widespread Mediocrity Pays Off

by: exRegionalWeenie (12/20/22)


According to this low level observer, there are just three outstanding teams in the NFL (Philly, KC and Buffalo). A debate expert might convince me to add Cincy to that list. Three other teams have good records but they are paper tigers. Minnesota is one of the worst 11-win teams in history despite their EPIC comeback after falling behind the Colts 33-0. The 49ers impressed with a 10-4 record but they are playing with their 9th string QB and the 10-win Cowboys.... eeewww, what a stinker they laid against the Jags this week. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are just two truly horrific teams (the 3-win Bears and 1-win Texans).

That leaves almost two dozen mediocre teams. That's right - there is a whole lot of Average Joe football being played in most NFL stadiums. The good aspect of widespread mediocrity is that it can set the stage for close games - and wow did we have a ton of close games in Week 15. Five games were decided by just 3 points, three games went to Overtime, and don't even get me started on the wild ending of the Raiders/Patriots game. What an awesome weekend!

Winners & Losers
What do Jeff Graschel, Tim Tinsley and Chris Liscinsky have in common? They won the PFCC in Weeks 13, 14 and 15, respectively. Nice job, guys!! Guess what else they have in common. None of them are in the overall Top 50 and they're each at least 125 points behind the overall leader. Weekly wins are awesome but you can't be a one-week pony and compete for a gold, silver or bronze bone. Following Chris in Week 15 were Eric Jones (second place) and Robert Ricks (third place). The average score in Week 15 of 33 points was dragged down by Keith Goolsby. He was in last place by going 4-11 to "earn" a -66. As you probably know, the lowest score of the week is assigned to all the people who didn't turn in picks that week. So, Keith's -66 was applied to almost 50 (non)players. Thanks, Keith!

Overall Standings after Week 15: Dale Paid his Dues
Dale Dues was the overall leader after Week 14 and he held on to the top position in Week 15. John Banghoff's strong Week 15 performance allowed him to take over second place and push Dan Valle into third (actually, they both have 742 points but John has one more win than Dan). Desiree Meadows and Steve Friend maintained their fourth and fifth place rankings, respectively. The rest of the overall Top 10 players are Jared Lee, Alisha Mize, Pat Spoden, Mark Fuhs and Steve Travis.

Group Play Standings: Tight Race between the Canes and Boomers
The BoomerBacks sit atop the Group Play standings after 15 weeks of NFL action. The have little more than a 1-point lead over Hurricane Elvis. Meanwhile, Sunday Funday is in third place - but they're about 25 points back in the standings.




CFCC Week 12: Champney Pitches No Hitter!

Wagenmaker Takes Overall Lead


by: Shudda, Cudda, Wudda



Week 12 Football Highlights
CFCC Week 12 looked like it would be only marginally interesting with several teams playing non-conference "directional teams" before next week's Rivalry Week, but the day offered many edge-of-your-seat games with 8 of the Top 14 CFP teams winning by 3 points or less and four of these teams outright losing. The biggest upset of the day was South Carolina over #5 Tennessee, but that one looked so unlikely it wasn't even on our sheet!

There were 4 upsets in our slate of games with two of them in the icy upper Midwest where Iowa upset Minnesota and Texas Tech upset Iowa State. The other two upsets were Arkansas bouncing back and upsetting Ole Miss 42-27 and #12 Oregon with a slight upset of #10 Utah. Now that we are into the latter half of November there is more "Football Weather" occurring. We looked for some cold weather games to include, with many of them being played below freezing, seeing every player's steamy breath. There were not any games with Heavy Snow on Saturday as seemingly all the snow in the Northern Hemisphere was dumping downstream of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

Dirty Dawg Play
For CFCC Week 12, Ted Champney had a No Hitter, going 14-0 and scoring a weekly max of 119 (with one point vacated from the cancelled Coastal Carolina v Virginia game). In 2nd Place this week was Kelly Sink with 113, and 3rd Place was Amber Hluchan with 110.

CFCC Year-to-Date Standings
In the overall standings, Dick Wagenmaker, Dirty Dawg Charter Member, slid into the lead moving from #2 to #1. Dick has been biding his time, being in the Top 5 for the past 6 weeks and in 2nd Place for the past three weeks. Pat Spoden bumped up from #3 to #2 and Alisha Mize surged up from #7 to #3. Todd Hamill (last week's #1) is still within striking distance, now at #6.

CFCC Group Play Standings
In Group Play, All in the Family still continues in 1st Place, with The Florida Dummies and the BuckNutz swapping places with BuckNutz now #2 and The Florida Dummies #3.

Looking ahead to Rivalry Week
Rivalry Week is already here, with the Egg Bowl (Miss State v Ole Miss) Thanksgiving Night, four games on Black Friday, but still a full 14 hours of games on Saturday headlined by #3 Michigan at #2 Ohio State. Good luck everyone!

CFCC Top dawgs

Final Standings

Place Player Pts W L
1 Tom Fannin 960 144 75
2 Robert Nystrom 951 151 68
3 Dick Wagenmaker 947 150 69
4 Christopher Bannan 943 146 73
5 Jeri Adams 939 142 77
6 Nervous Jones 933 147 72
7 Dan Kozlowski 933 147 72
8 Alisha Mize 917 149 70
9 Judy Whaley 917 144 75
10 Pat Spoden 909 146 73
Full CFCC Standings

PFCC Top dawgs

Through Week 19

Place Player Pts W L
1 Dan Valle 1349 177 76
2 John Banghoff 1326 173 80
3 Desiree Meadows 1298 173 80
4 Jason Gribek 1279 167 86
5 Alisha Mize 1263 169 84
6 Carol Overton 1261 168 85
7 Dale Dues 1258 168 85
8 Brandon Gale 1256 170 83
9 Jeff Vitale 1255 165 88
10 Christine Kruse 1253 166 87
Full PFCC Standings

CBCC Top dawgs

2023 Contest

Place Player Points
1 Bill Gargan 7371
2 Linda Kunches 7293
3 Ken Gribek 7285
4 Steve Friend 7275
5 Steve Beaver 7265
6 Otto Binau 7260
7 Dan Gossin 7237
8 Joe Kunches 7230
9 Ryan Hamill 7211
10 Seth Binau 7174
Full CBCC Standings

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