GKTAEF is back!

BCS standings are out, which means that the GKTAEF is back too.  Check out how the 16-team tournament would turn out according to my rules if the season ended today!  It looks like it's going to be an interesting year.

In other news, life is getting busier and busier.  I'm trying to stay on top of everything, and sometimes this blog gets pushed to the bottom of the pile.  Just don't abandon me both ye occasional, and devout (if any) followers of this blog.  I'm trying my best!

Maybe a picture of Baby Thor will hold you over until the next time I get to post.

I look mad because I'm hungry.

Less Than a Transfer To Go

There's less than a transfer (or 6 weeks) until Baby Thor is supposed to arrive.  A lot has happened since the last time I posted.  At least a lot of time has passed anyway.

Number one:  Birthing class was informative, but somewhat disgusting.  In any case, we now know
everything about the whole thing, know what door to walk into, when to go to the hospital, what is going to happen when we get there.  Most of all, I'm not as worried about getting to the hospital on time anymore.  The "early phase" of labor generally lasts for 5-8 hours, and they said not to come to the hospital until after that phase is almost over.  I think we'll have plenty of warning.  Hopefully.

Danny eating a glass of egg (not eggnog) for half-Christmas.

Número dos:  I miss Danny.  He's doing awesome on his mission and it sounds like he's having lots of fun.

#three:  (Not a hashtag.)  Football is coming up soon.  The season actually starts the day before Baby Thor is due.  Still looking for people to sign up for the Surprisingly Average College Football League.  Only 13 days left to sign up.  Also looking forward to how the GKTAEF will turn out this year.

Number 4:  Life is good.  The gospel is awesome.  The Church is true.  Keep being awesome everybody!

Introducing... the SACFL!

The Surprisingly Average College Football League is  a college fantasy football league with a big twist.  Instead of drafting individual players, you draft entire teams.  That means you'll have less time debating which quarterback will score the most touchdowns and more time debating who will win!

The inaugural draft begins on August 8, 2013.

For current rules and league details, click here, or go to tinyurl.com/SACFLRules

To sign up to play, click here, or go to tinyurl.com/SACFL

GKTAEF 2013 - Round 1

The regular season is over, and here is how the GKTAEF Round 1 games have shaped up.

Notre Dame vs.  Tulsa
Oklahoma vs.  Florida State
Stanford vs.  Boise State
Alabama vs. Utah State
Florida vs. Wisconsin
Oregon vs. Northern Illinois
Ohio State vs. Arkansas State
Kansas State vs. Louisville

Round 1 starts on December 15th.  Be sure to check the GKTAEF page above to see how things play out.
Also, a reminder that there is still time to join the College Bowl Mania game on ESPN.com.
Group name: MUU Contest
Password: muu2013

GKTAEF 2013 Updates & Contest

GKTAEF 2013 is shaping up, with new surprises in college football every week.  Click on the GKTAEF 2013 tab above to see who is in the tournament as of right now.

Also, join me, and whoever else decides to join, for a college bowl mania contest.  The contest is simple.  You pick who you think will win each of the bowl games that begin in December.  You assign each game a confidence rankings, based on how sure you are of the outcome.  You receive that many points for each game you get right.  The person with the most amount of points wins.

To play, visit espn.com, click on "Fantasy & Games" and then click on "College Bowl Mania." After you create an entry, be sure to join our group.  The group name is "MUU Contest" and the password is "muu2013" Good luck to everyone!

GKTAEF 2013

Now that football season is upon us once again, I'd like to point out that the GKTAEF will be held again this year.  This is my fantasy 16-team tournament to determine who should really be national champions.  The conference winners, plus 5 at-large teams are selected, placed in a bracket, and then my poor man's algorithm is applied to see who advances at each stage.  Click on the GKTAEF tab above to see more.

GKTAEF Update

The winners of Round 1 of the GKTAEF tournament have been selected. Click on the link above to see who moved on.

College Football and Finals

Front Row Tickets!

College football is coming to an end.  BYU's last game of the regular season is this week, along with a bunch of conference championships.  Needless to say, I'll be making my selections for the GKTAEF tournament this weekend.  Check the GKTAEF tab above for updates on how that's going for me.

I think that the most exciting about the bowl games this year is that I'm actually going to one for the first time.  Yes, I'll be at the Armed Forces Bowl watching BYU play some sweet football against a team from Conference USA.  And yes, I'll be on row 1.  It's going to be awesome!

The potential 2012 GKTAEF trophy

I've also been working on a trophy that I will probably send to the team that wins my tournament.  Check it out.

Anyway, only 2 weeks until the end of finals.  Whoo-hoo! [Insert jokes about students being the only group of consumers that doesn't want a high quality in what they pay for here.]

BCS - A better method

So, here's my little rant about the BCS system.  Basically, most conferences already have a pod system.  For example, the Pac-12 divides the conference into North and South.  And they're planning on having a conference championship game.  Why can't we all just play as though we're in one big conference?  Here's the math:

There are currently 11 conferences in Division I-A football:

• ACC
• Big 12 (which currently has 10 teams)
• Big Ten (which currently has 12.  Ironic, isn't it?)
• Big East
• Conference USA
• Mid-American
• Mountain West
• Pac-12
• SEC
• Sun Belt
• WAC

Suppose that each conference was treated as a pod.  Conference winners get invited to the tournament I'm instituting.

For a good tournament, you would need 16 teams.  The five remaining teams would be the five highest ranked teams that hadn't been invited to the tournament yet.  So, if you think it's unfair to have to win a conference, or if you're BYU, Notre Dame, Army, or Navy, just rank higher than everybody else and you won't have to worry about it.

A 16-team tournament would require 4 rounds.  We're going to keep the last round on New Year's Day.  That puts the first round this year on the week of December 10th.  That's the first week after regular season play.  Four weeks later, you have this awesome game, that would end up rotating between the traditional four BCS bowl games, just to keep them happy.  This year it would be played in the Louisana Superdome.  I would call it the 2012 Allstate Sugar Bowl.  Of the other three bowls, two would be the semi-final games the week before, and the third would be played between the two teams from the final four that didn't make it into the final game.

Alternatively, we could possibly have the semi-final games played on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, with the final on January 2nd, as has been done in the past.  That would give teams an extra week after the regular season to do whatever they want.  Probably practice, if they're going to the tournament.

Also notice that this doesn't eliminate all of the other bowl games in the country.  You can still have one, but your conference champions won't be there, since they're playing in my tournament.  If one of your bowl game spots was guaranteed to a conference champion, you get one of the quarter-final, or first round games, depending on how "important" that conference was.

So, I'll be posting my tournament layout and handing out my own championships.  The inaugural 2012 Glen K Thurston Award for Excellence in Football (GKTAEF) goes to the team that wins my tournament.  That causes a few problems because the teams probably won't actually play in my tournament.  So, I'll hand it out based on the following method.  If the teams happened to really play each other, I'll use the real scores, regardless of when the game was played.  If they didn't really play each other, I'll either use an online poll, or some other method of figuring out who would win.  Check out the tab at the top of the page for the bracket.