Friday, February 5, 2016

Super Yawn

TigerBlog can't remember a Super Bowl that he cared less about than the one this Sunday.

He's not even excited about the commercials, which have been non-creative in the last few years. You know, trying way too hard to be funny and failing.

It's nothing against the Panthers and the Broncos. It's just that he's not as into the NFL as he used to be.

He has watched less and less NFL the last few years, with an all-time low this year.

This, of course, makes him about 180 degrees removed from the general sports populous, which cannot get enough of the NFL. Ratings have skyrocketed to all-time highs, even as the NFL over-saturates the market with games in as many different windows as it can manage.

TigerBlog has watched not one second of Super Bowl preview on TV, and he's listened to none of it on the radio. It just doesn't interest him.

He'd like to see Denver win. Maybe. On the one hand, it would be good to see Peyton Manning win in what hopefully is his final game. On the other hand, it's also good that Eli Manning has won two Super Bowls and Peyton has only won one.

TigerBlog thinks Carolina has the better team, but Denver's defense is really good. So maybe it won't be high scoring.

Going back to the summer, TigerBlog's preseason Super Bowl prediction was Baltimore and Philadelphia. They went a combined 12-20, so that wasn't a good pick.

For the game Sunday, how about Denver 21, Carolina 17, with Manning the MVP even though he doesn't do much?

So that's Sunday night. Maybe TigerBlog will watch. Maybe he won't.

Between now and then, it's a big weekend in Princeton athletics. From this morning through kickoff Sunday night, there are 34 Princeton Athletic events, with, if TB counted right, 16 different teams.

There will also be Ivy League titles award, as the men's and women's fencing round robins will be held at Cornell tomorrow and Sunday.

The women's hockey team plays its final Ivy League game of the year tomorrow at Cornell, and a win would clinch at least a share of the league title for the Tigers. Princeton lost 2-1 to the Big Red back in November at Baker Rink, but the Tigers are 17-5-1 overall and 7-2-0 in the Ivy League.

As for the ECAC, Princeton is tied for third with Colgate at 10-5-1, for 21 points, one behind Clarkson for second (Quinnipiac is first with 27). Harvard is in fifth with 19. The top four teams in the league earn home ice in the ECAC playoffs.

The men's team is home against Colgate tonight and Cornell tomorrow. Princeton has five wins on the season, which means this year will be an improvement over last, and the Tigers are tied with the Raiders for 10th place.

Home ice for the ECAC playoffs goes to the top eight, leaving Princeton five points behind. But that's not what's important for this year. No, Year 2 under Ron Fogarty has been about improvement and progress, and Princeton is clearly moving in the right direction.

As for basketball, the women are on the road this weekend, with a game tonight at Dartmouth and then Sunday afternoon at Harvard. Princeton is 2-1 in the league, a game back of Penn, who plays at Harvard tonight and Dartmouth tomorrow night.

The Harvard game can be seen on American Sports Network. HERE'S the list of outlets showing the game.

As for the men, they're home tonight against Harvard and tomorrow against Dartmouth. The game tonight is on ESPNU at 7, while tomorrow's game is at 6.

Harvard might be 1-3, but sell the Crimson short at your own risk. There is a long way to go in the Ivy race, and the game tonight is one of the defining games in the league as the race shapes up.

Who else is home this weekend? The whole schedule is HERE.

Apologies to anyone TB is overlooking, but there is home men's and women's swimming and diving, men's tennis and men's and women's squash. Admission to those events is free.

Oh, and there's also a home men's lacrosse scrimmage at 1 tomorrow against Monmouth. Men's lacrosse scrimmage? Hey, there are nine actual regular season games this weekend already.

So who needs the Super Bowl with all that going on.

Remember, TigerBlog has it Denver 21, Carolina 17.

Nah, that doesn't sound right.

It'll be more like Carolina 28, Denver 14. Yeah, let's go with that one.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm typing this early enough on Sunday morning that the second day of Ivy round-robin fencing is still in progress. As of right now, with the women's hockey team clinching the outright Ivy championship yesterday, Princeton women have won the first five Ivy women's titles this academic year. Five in a row at any point in a year is probably some kind of record. Keep up the great work, ladies.

Anonymous said...

Ivy fencing round-robin finished. Make it six in a row for the Princeton women.