I’ve got to be a little honest with you all…you may start to notice me getting a bit depressed in the next couple of weeks. I can’t help it, but it seems to happen at this point every year and I’m anticipating it getting worse this year. However, there’s good news because I know the root cause of my seasonal sadness…Christmas college football is over. “Whaaaaa!?” you might be saying; “college football isn’t over yet! Bowl games don’t even start for another 9 days!” Correct, the first bowl games begin December 20th, 9 days from today.

But, there’s only one bowl game that matters, and we have to wait until January 8th for that one. In the meantime, I sit around realizing that there’s nine months until college football starts anew. Nine months to realize that yes, Lane Kiffin is actually the new coach of my Vols. Nine months to wonder whether I should be cautiously optimistic, or cautiously realistic, about the next season.

So, as I wallow in my sorrow of not being able to watch my Vols play in a winter exhibition bowl game, you guys can cheer me up by reading our bowl previews and Heisman picks. Beginning today and wrapping up on Monday during the typical TWTWCFB time slot, we will preview the pre-New Year’s Day bowls (today), the non-BCS New Year’s and post-New Year’s bowls (tomorrow), and the BCS bowls (Monday). And, somewhere in there, before the Heisman Memorial Trophy winner is official, patphish will emerge from the shadows to compile the S&F ballots and determine the Sparty & Friends Heisman Memorial Trophy winner.

Of course, all that junk about depression and sadness is simply me being dramatic and somewhat facetious because there’s actually a lot going on in the sports world right now! NFL, NBA, College Basketball, MLB Hot Stove, NHL, and probably others that I’m forgetting. So, let’s see what happened last night and what could happen “today, tomorrow, next week, and next year.” (bonus points if you name the song that contains that line)

Looks like we’re gonna get GITC’d today – that means there were more than 5 NBA games last night, so we get a Studs & Duds post: my favorite player, Chris Bosh, led the streaky Raptors over the Pacers, the Knicks harnessed their youth to beat the crosstown(?) but in a different state Nets, the Hornets used their stud point guard to beat the team from their former hometown, the Cleveland Lebrons extended their NBA-season-leading win streak to 10 against the Sixers, Memphis won another game (albeit against the worst team in the league, the Thunder), the Spurs held the Hawks at bay, the Denver Billups’ won again with the help of ‘Melo’s record 12 minutes against the Minnesota Garnett-less’, two team’s I’ve never heard of (Golden State > Milwaukee) played, and the Kobe-ful Lakers beat the Shaq-less Suns to keep pace with the Cavs for best record in the Association.

(GITC’d EARLY! This is a special GITC TMA interruption to tell you about the two three-team trades that happened in the NBA yesterday. First the smaller one: Memphis got the 1st round pick back that they sent to the Wizards last year in the Juan Carlos Navarro trade by giving up Javaris Crittenton (promising PG out of Georgia Tech they received as part of the Gasol deal from the Lakers) to the Wizards and giving a 2nd round pick to the Hornets. The Hornets also get Antonio Daniels from the Wizards and send Mike James to Washington to make it all work. The Wizards then dropped Dee Brown to make room for the two new guards. What does this mean? It means that the Hornets slightly downgraded their back-up PG to gain a 2nd rounder, the Grizz got control of their 1st by giving up a prospect and a 2nd, and the Wiz were happy to take an established guard and a prospect guard to help while Gilbert continues to recover by giving up their PG, a 1st, and dropping dead weight. I’d say it’s a pretty fair deal all around.

Now the bigger trade. The Bobcats sent Jason Richardson, Jared Dudley, and a 2010 2nd round pick to the Suns for Boris Diaw, Raja Bell, and Sean Singletary. The Suns are essentially giving up defense (Bell) for offense (Richardson) at the SG starting spot. I’d say that is an interesting move. While Matt Barnes (who is currently at the SF) can move up to guard any decent SG, I’m not sure why you’d want that. Let’s say the Suns came out a little on top there. Then they gave up Diaw (who most NBA fans know as the guy who failed in Atlanta, was stolen by the Suns, looked like he’d be awesome, gained 30 pounds of fat, and stopped getting better) and Singletary for Dudley and a 2nd rounder. Since Singletary is basically you’re average 2nd rounder, we’ll call that even. So, Diaw for Dudley? I guess you could say that is wasted potential for potential and the Suns come out on top there. The only problem now is that Dudley is pretty much their only option to back-up Amare. So, Amare will be playing a lot. All in all, I’d say the Suns win on this one but they need to slow their tempo even more so that Shaq’s presence can be felt on defense to make up for the loss of Bell.

Now back to you regularly scheduled Miz…)

Yesterday, our esteemed MLB prognosticators brought you Hot Stove analysis for 10 players. The meetings in Sin City have gotten interesting with the movin’ and shakin’ picking up and the chump change getting thrown around. CC’s settling in NY for a measly 7 years and $161 million. Washington offered Texeira 8 years and $160 million. There’s a bunch of movement going on…check the news on the right side here or investigate this “blog.”

Ummmmmm…watch out for robots.

Why would the Giants refuse to pay Plaxico’s $1 million bonus that was due to him yesterday? It’s not like he’s being insubordinate or a diva like the other wide receivers around the NFL…right? Well, now there’s accusations from the NFL’s Players Association union that the Giants are violating the collective bargaining agreement and an arbitrator will be getting involved at the season’s end. At what point are athletes held to personal responsibility and the resulting repurcussions over what’s due via a contract? I’d love to know the answer to this quandary.

Eat mor chikin?

Speaking of cows and, previously, the Giants, the Cowboys have a game against said Gi’nts this weekend and may be missing their own headcase player, but actually due to a football-related injury. Pacman has one, maybe two, herniated discs in his neck and won’t play this weekend. Heck, he may not play the rest of the season or ever again. I don’t like dirtbags and I consider Adam “Pacman” Jones a dirtbag of the highest order. However, regardless of the fact that I’m sure I’ve been overheard yelling for a large man in a certain sherbet-shaded orange to sweep the leg when Tebow options left, I would never wish injury on a player, even a dirtbag player.

Anybody been paying attention to college basketball yet? We’ve done some conference and individual team previews around here and even covered one of those silly early season tournaments. I know I seem to get pretty jacked up for CBB at the beginning of the season and then get sucked back into the juggernaut that is CFB until about right now. Then I remember, “hey, we’re a month into this thing and I need to pay attention or I’m gonna miss something good.” Witness the rankings.

The Heisman Memorial Trophy finalsists have been announced. Prepare to be shocked…not really.

John Daly broke some rude sum’bitch’s camera and his eyes are still burning from the flash. That’s a bright flash.

And finally, because humor is funny (I hope this works and plug in your headphones if so):
I was trying to embed a video and it’s not working. If any of you guys are fairly savvy with that, drop me an email at mizerle06(at)gmail(dot)com and I’ll send the link for you to get it in there.

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