Initial fantasy football ranks
One of my goals for this year is to post content to this blog that actually reflects my day-to-day interests, by which I mean: I love my job and I love movies, but at any given free-time moment what I’m actually thinking about is current events, sports, movies, or food. And fantasy football. I love fantasy football. I think I enjoy it for the same reason I like poker: both games are perfect play activities in that the research, analysis, and decision-making skills they call for are the same ones I use in my real life, but since there’s nothing at stake I can experiment with strategies I would never employ in any other scenario because they are too ruthless, too risky, too unrehearsed, whatever. Anyway, because it’s never too early to start preparing for the upcoming season, I’ve already started preparing my initial draft board. These rankings are for a one-point PPR (“points per reception,” for the uninitiated) league with big-play and big-game bonuses. My four keepers are the names in italics, which, because I’m a homer they’re all probably a few slots higher than they should be, with the exception of Jimmy Graham, who I anticipate is going to have a huge year. Without further ado:
QB:
1. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers
2. Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers
3. Peyton Manning, Denver Broncos
4. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints
5. Tom Brady, New England Patriots
6. Andrew Luck, Indianapolis Colts
7. Robert Griffin III, Washington Redskins
8. Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco 49ers
9. Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks
10. Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions
RB:
1. Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings
2. Arian Foster, Houston Texans
3. Ray Rice, Baltimore Ravens
4. LeSean McCoy, Philadelphia Eagles
5. Jamaal Charles, Kansas City Chiefs
6. Marshawn Lynch, Seattle Seahawks
7. Doug Martin, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
8. Trent Richardson, Cleveland Browns
9. C.J. Spiller, Buffalo Bills
10. Matt Forte, Chicago Bears
11. Alfred Morris, Washington Redskins
12. Maurice Jones-Drew, Jacksonville Jaguars
13. Darren McFadden, Oakland Raiders
14. Steven Jackson, Atlanta Falcons
15. Darren Sproles, New Orleans Saints
16. DeMarco Murray, Dallas Cowboys
17. Chris Johnson, Tennessee Titans
18. Reggie Bush, Detroit Lions
19. Frank Gore, San Francisco 49ers
20. David Wilson, New York Giants
21. Ryan Mathews, San Diego Chargers
22. Chris Ivory, New York Jets
23. Stevan Ridley, New England Patriots
24. Montee Ball, Denver Broncos
25. Lamar Miller, Miami Dolphins
26. Le’Veon Bell, Pittsburgh Steelers
27. Vick Ballard, Indianapolis Colts
28. BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Cincinnati Bengals
29. Rashard Mendenhall, Arizona Cardinals
30. Eddie Lacy, Green Bay Packers
WR:
1. Calvin Johnson, Detroit Lions
2. A.J. Green, Cincinnati Bengals
3. Brandon Marshall, Chicago Bears
4. Dez Bryant, Dallas Cowboys
5. Julio Jones, Atlanta Falcons
6. Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona Cardinals
7. Percy Harvin, Seattle Seahawks
8. Roddy White, Atlanta Falcons
9. Demaryius Thomas, Denver Broncos
10. Andre Johnson, Houston Texans
11. Vincent Jackson, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
12. Victor Cruz, New York Giants
13. Randall Cobb, Green Bay Packers
14. Mike Wallace, Miami Dolphins
15. Jordy Nelson, Green Bay Packers
16. Hakeem Nicks, New York Giants
17. Marques Colston, New Orleans Saints
18. Greg Jennings, Minnesota Vikings
19. Danny Amendola, New England Patriots
20. Reggie Wayne, Indianapolis Colts
21. Antonio Brown, Pittsburgh Steelers
22. Michael Crabtree, San Francisco 49ers
23. Pierre Garcon, Washington Redskins
24. Steve Smith, Carolina Panthers
25. Torrey Smith, Baltimore Ravens
26. Eric Decker, Denver Broncos
27. Wes Welker, Denver Broncos
28. Dwayne Bowe, Kansas City Chiefs
29. Miles Austin, Dallas Cowboys
30. DeSean Jackson, Philadelphia Eagles
TE:
1. Jimmy Graham, New Orleans Saints
2. Aaron Hernandez, New England Patriots
3. Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots
4. Tony Gonzalez, Atlanta Falcons
5. Jason Witten, Dallas Cowboys
6. Vernon Davis, San Francisco 49ers
7. Jermichael Finley, Green Bay Packers
8. Antonio Gates, San Diego Chargers
9. Brandon Pettigrew, Detroit Lions
10. Jared Cook, St. Louis Rams
D/ST:
1. San Francisco 49ers
2. Seattle Seahawks
3. Houston Texans
4. Denver Broncos
5. Chicago Bears
6. Arizona Cardinals
7. Cincinnati Bengals
8. Baltimore Ravens
9. New England Patriots
10. Miami Dolphins
K:
1. Blair Walsh, Minnesota Vikings
2. Justin Tucker, Baltimore Ravens
3. Greg Zuerlein, St. Louis Rams
4. Sebastian Janikowski, Oakland Raiders
5. Nick Novak, San Diego Chargers
6. Stephen Gostkowski, New England Patriots
7. Matt Prater, Denver Broncos
8. Phil Dawson, San Francisco 49ers
9. Rob Bironas, Tennessee Titans
10. Alex Henery, Philadelphia Eagles
A somewhat pointless task that I spent a lot of time on once
Did I ever tell you about the time my friend Mike and I fixed the NCAA? Our original intention was to re-imagine the college sports landscape as if it were dominated by basketball instead of football (which might be an interesting project to take up again now that the Big East has provided us with a template of sorts) but I got distracted by the possibility that a better, geography-based model could exist even in the football crazy world we live in now. What I came up with, in the end, was a Division IA that included 14 12-team conferences. The champions of the top eight of these conferences (determined prior to the beginning of the season based on a formula TBA except in year one, when they are determined by me) receive an automatic berth in the 12-team Championship Tournament. The top four teams receive byes. The remaining four teams square off against eight at-large teams selected from the Division IA pool according to their ranking in a system similar to (but better than, natch) the BCS standings we have now–let’s call this the “CTS standings” for the time being. (Note: No FCS schools were “demoted” to Division IB, but some FBS schools were placed in Division IA conferences; when deciding which schools, I looked at geography, stadium capacity, program history, and evidence of a plan or desire to move up to the FBS.)
Any conference champion not awarded a berth in the Division IA Championship Tournament automatically receives a berth in the 16-team Division IB Championship Tournament, as do the champions of the five IB conferences that participate in the playoffs. If an invitation to this tournament is declined for any reason, it passes to the loser of the Conference Championship Game (I forgot to mention that all of these conferences have 12 teams, which will be divided into two six-team divisions, and they all will have a Conference Championship Game). If it is declined again, the invitation is lost. The remaining Division IB Championship Tournament bids will, like the Division IA bids, be awarded based on ranking in the CTS standings.
In addition to the 19 conferences described above and two Division IB conferences that do not participate in either Championship Tournament (the Ivy League and the Southwestern Conference), there are seven conferences which are Division I for basketball only that receive automatic bids in the NCAA basketball tournament–which, by the way, doesn’t have to change one bit otherwise. Here are the conferences:
DIVISION IA
(*) Denotes conference champion receives automatic berth in the Division IA Football Championship Tournament. All other conference champions are guaranteed an invitation to the Division IA Football Championship Tournament. If the invitation is declined it passes to the losing team in the conference tournament. If it is declined again, the invitation is lost. All conference champions receive an automatic bid in the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament.
Mid-Atlantic Conference (*)
1. Army
2. Delaware
3. Georgetown
4. Maryland
5. Navy
6. Penn State
7. Pitt
8. Rutgers
9. Syracuse
10. Temple
11. Villanova
12. West Virginia
Great Lakes Conference (*)
1. Buffalo
2. Cincinnati
3. Illinois
4. Indiana
5. Michigan
6. Michigan State
7. Minnesota
8. Northwestern
9. Notre Dame
10. Ohio State
11. Purdue
12. Wisconsin
Pacific Conference (*)
1. Arizona
2. Arizona State
3. BYU
4. Cal
5. Oregon
6. Oregon State
7. Stanford
8. UCLA
9. USC
10. Utah
11. Washington
12. Washington State
Eastern Conference
1. Boston College
2. Bucknell
3. Colgate
4. UConn
5. Fordham
6. Holy Cross
7. James Madison
8. Lafayette
9. Lehigh
10. Maine
11. UMass
12. New Hampshire
Northwest Conference
1. Eastern Washington
2. Idaho
3. Idaho State
4. Montana
5. Montana State
6. Nevada
7. Portland State
8. Southern Utah
9. UNLV
10. Utah State
11. Weber State
12. Wyoming
Desert Sun Conference
1. Cal Poly
2. Fresno State
3. Hawai’i
4. New Mexico State
5. Northern Arizona
6. Northern Colorado
7. Sacramento State
8. San Diego
9. San Diego State
10. San Jose State
11. UTEP
12. UC Davis
Conference America the Beautiful (*)
1. Air Force
2. Boise State
3. Colorado
4. Colorado State
5. Drake
6. Iowa
7. Nebraska
8. New Mexico
9. North Dakota
10. North Dakota State
11. South Dakota
12. South Dakota State
Southwest Conference (*)
1. Arkansas
2. Baylor
3. Houston
4. Oklahoma
5. Oklahoma State
6. Rice
7. SMU
8. Texas
9. Texas A&M
10. TCU
11. Texas Tech
12. Tulsa
Old South Conference (*)
1. Appalachian State
2. Charlotte
3. Clemson
4. Duke
5. East Carolina
6. UNC
7. North Carolina State
8. Old Dominion
9. South Carolina
10. Virginia
11. Virginia Tech
12. Wake Forest
SEC (*)
1. Alabama
2. Auburn
3. Florida
4. Florida State
5. Georgia
6. Georgia Tech
7. Kentucky
8. LSU
9. Mississippi State
10. Ole Miss
11. Tennessee
12. Vanderbilt
Riverboat Conference (*)
1. Iowa State
2. Kansas
3. Kansas State
4. Louisville
5. Memphis
6. Middle Tennessee State
7. Missouri
8. Missouri State
9. Northern Illinois
10. Northern Iowa
11. UAB
12. Western Kentucky
Gulf Coast Conference
1. Florida Atlantic
2. Florida International
3. Louisiana-Lafayette
4. Louisiana-Monroe
5. Louisiana Tech
6. Miami (FL)
7. South Alabama
8. South Florida
9. Southern Miss
10. Troy
11. Tulane
12. Central Florida
MAC
1. Akron
2. Ball State
3. Bowling Green
4. Central Michigan
5. Eastern Michigan
6. Kent State
7. Marshall
8. Miami (OH)
9. Ohio
10. Toledo
11. Western Michigan
12. Youngstown State
Southland Conference
1. Arkansas State
2. Central Arkansas
3. Lamar
4. McNeese State
5. Nicholls State
6. North Texas
7. Northwestern State
8. Sam Houston State
9. Southeastern Louisiana
10. Stephen F. Austin
11. Texas State
12. UT-San Antonio
DIVISION IB
(-) Denotes conference does not participate in playoffs. All other conference champions are guaranteed an invitation to the Division IB Football Championship Tournament. All conference champions receive an automatic bid in the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament.
Southern Conference
1. Campbell
2. The Citadel
3. Davidson
4. Elon
5. Furman
6. Georgia Southern
7. Georgia State
8. Jacksonville
9. Richmond
10. Western Carolina
11. William & Mary
12. Wofford
Big South Conference
1. Charleston Southern
2. Chattanooga
3. Coastal Carolina
4. Gardner-Webb
5. Jacksonville State
6. Liberty
7. Presbyterian
8. Samford
9. Tennessee-Martin
10. Tennessee State
11. Tennessee Tech
12. VMI
River Valley Conference
1. Austin Peay
2. Butler
3. Dayton
4. Eastern Illinois
5. Eastern Kentucky
6. Illinois State
7. Indiana State
8. Morehead State
9. Murray State
10. Southeast Missouri State
11. Southern Illinois
12. Valparaiso
13. Western Illinois
Ivy League (-)
1. Brown
2. Columbia
3. Cornell
4. Dartmouth
5. Harvard
6. Penn
7. Princeton
8. Yale
Southwestern Conference (-)
1. Alabama A&M
2. Alabama State
3. Alcorn State
4. Arkansas-Pine Bluff
5. Grambling State
6. Jackson State
7. Mississippi Valley State
8. Prairie View A&M
9. Southern
10. Texas Southern
Northeast Conference
1. Albany
2. Bryant
3. Central Connecticut State
4. Duquesne
5. Marist
6. Monmouth
7. Rhode Island
8. Robert Morris
9. Sacred Heart
10. St. Francis (PA)
11. Stony Brook
12. Towson
13. Wagner
Mid-Eastern Conference
1. Bethune-Cookman
2. Delaware State
3. Florida A&M
4. Hampton
5. Howard
6. Morgan State
7. Norfolk State
8. North Carolina A&T
9. North Carolina Central
10. Savannah State
11. South Carolina State
DI SCHOOLS IN BASKETBALL ONLY
All conference champions receive an automatic bid in the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament.
West Coast Conference
1. Cal State Bakersfield
2. Cal State Fullerton
3. Cal State Northridge
4. Gonzaga
5. Long Beach State
6. Loyola Marymount
7. Pacific
8. Pepperdine
9. Portland
10. San Francisco
11. Saint Mary’s
12. Santa Clara
13. Seattle
14. UC Irvine
15. UC Riverside
16. UC Santa Barbara
Big East
1. American
2. Boston University
3. Drexel
4. George Mason
5. George Washington
6. Hofstra
7. La Salle
8. UNC-Wilmington
9. Northeastern
10. Providence
11. Saint Joseph’s
12. St. Bonaventure
13. St. John’s
14. Seton Hall
15. Vermont
16. Virginia Commonwealth
Metro Atlantic Conference
1. Binghamton
2. Canisius
3. Fairfield
4. Fairleigh Dickinson
5. Hartford
6. Iona
7. LIU
8. Loyola (MD)
9. Manhattan
10. Mount St. Mary’s
11. Niagara
12. Quinnipiac
13. Rider
14. St. Francis (NY)
15. St. Peter’s
16. Siena
Midwest Conference
1. Bradley
2. Cleveland State
3. Creighton
4. Denver
5. DePaul
6. Detroit
7. Evansville
8. Illinois-Chicago
9. Loyola (IL)
10. Marquette
11. Saint Louis
12. Wichita State
13. Wisconsin-Green Bay
14. Wisconsin-Milwaukee
15. Wright State
16. Xavier
Atlantic Sun Conference
1. Arkansas-Little Rock
2. Belmont
3. Coppin State
4. East Tennessee State
5. Florida Gulf Coast
6. Kennesaw State
7. Lipscomb
8. Maryland-Eastern Shore
9. Mercer
10. North Florida
11. Northern Kentucky
12. Stetson
13. UMBC
14. USC Upstate
Appalachian Valley Conference
1. Charleston
2. High Point
3. Longwood
4. North Carolina-Asheville
5. North Carolina-Greenboro
6. NJIT
7. Radford
8. Winthrop
Burnt by the Sun Video Essay
This is a video essay about the film Burnt by the Sun (1994) that Kevin Lee, who Roger Ebert recently called a “grandmaster” of the form, and I collaborated on a few years ago. I am posting it here now because I need a better link for a PowerPoint presentation. Hurrah!
2012: The Mixtape, Vols. 4-6
Right! Click on the titles below for the remaining three volumes of 2012: The Mixtape! Volumes 1-3 can be found here.
1. Fun., feat. Janelle Monáe – We Are Young
2. Twin Shadow – The One
3. Pond – You Broke My Cool
4. Saint Etienne – Answer Song
5. Belbury Poly – Geography
6. Dum Dum Girls – I Got Nothing
7. Danny Brown – Grown Up
8. Chairlift – I Belong in Your Arms
9. First Aid Kit – Emmylou
10. Beach House – Wishes
11. Air – Seven Stars
12. Earl Sweatshirt – Chum
13. Titus Andronicus – Upon Viewing Oregon’s Landscape with the Flood of Detritus
14. Of Monsters and Men – Little Talks
15. Bruce Springsteen – Rocky Ground
16. Swearin’ – Here to Hear
17. Unsane – Stuck
18. Evan Voytas – When We Could All Float Away
19. Andrew Bird – Orpheo Looks Back
1. Bob Dylan – Pay in Blood
2. Bat for Lashes – Laura
3. Animal Collective – Father Time
4. Dr. Dog – That Old Black Hole
5. The Raveonettes – Observations
6. Grimes – Oblivion
7. The Lumineers – Stubborn Love
8. The Walkmen – The Love You Love
9. Earth – His Teeth Did Brightly Shine
10. Wild Nothing – This Chain Won’t Break
11. Death Grips – Hacker
12. Sky Ferreira – Everything is Embarrassing
13. Lower Dens – Lamb
14. Daughn Gibson – Bad Guys
15. Damien Jurado – This Time Next Year
16. Whirr – Wait
17. Mirel Wagner – Dream
18. Cat Power – Manhattan
1. Guided by Voices – Doughnut for a Snowman
2. Zammuto – Yay
3. How to Dress Well – Cold Nites
4. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Baby
5. Homeboy Sandman – Soap
6. Lilacs & Champagne – Everywhere, Everyone
7. The Ting Tings – Day to Day
8. Hot Chip – Night & Day
9. Royal Headache – Pity
10. Major Lazer – Get Free
11. Rhye – The Fall
12. Trust – This Ready Flesh
13. Matthew E. White – Will You Love Me
14. Magnetic Fields – Born for Love
15. Of Montreal – Spiteful Intervention
16. Tame Impala – Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
17. My Best Fiend – Higher Palms
18. Torche – Kicking
19. Blur – Under the Westway
20. Grizzly Bear – Sun in Your Eyes
Best Baltimore Bites
I started keeping a list of my Top Ten Favorite Baltimore Bites on Facebook about a year ago. I’ve decided to more said list here in order to make it easier for me to find and fiddle with it, which I promise you I will do on a regular basis. Without further ado, since anyone reading this has likely seen this list before:
Best Baltimore Bites (updated: 3/30/2013):
10. Pepperoni pizza at Matthew’s Pizza
9. Pho Dac Biet at Mekong Delta
8. Cold smoked fried chicken at Bluegrass Tavern
7. A crepe with egg, gruyere, salt and pepper, and hot sauce at the Ruben’s Crepes stand at the Baltimore Farmer’s Market
6. The sausage, egg and cheese sandwich at Jack and Zach Food
5. Mason-Dixon-style roasted oysters at Woodberry Kitchen
4. Garlic bread at Peter’s Inn
3. Any kind of ice cream at Woodberry Kitchen (current especial favorites: 1. toasted oat, 2. malted barley, 3. sweet cream)
2. Kaddo bowrani (the pumpkin appetizer) at The Helmand
1. The All-American burrito with bison at Golden West Cafe
Honorable Mentions:
Coconut macaroons at Patisserie Poupon; cardamom gelato at Pitango Gelato; mussels with anchovy, tomato & garlic butter at Bertha’s; the Utah sandwich at Johnny’s;
Changes Since Last Update:
The sausage, egg and cheese sandwich at Jack and Zach food debuts at #6; the coconut macaroons at Patisserie Poupon (#9) and the Utah sandwich at Johnny’s (#10) drop to Honorable Mentions
2012: The Mixtape, Vols. 1-3
Right! For reasons explained in my last post I have decided to share my year-end mixes in the form of Spotify playlists from now on. If you don’t already have a Spotify account, I highly recommend signing up for one: I use it in conjunction with Pitchfork‘s Reviews page, and between the two resources I feel like I’m as hep to what’s new and exciting in the world of popular music as I was during my indie rock snob heyday in college. Anyway, below you’ll find links the playlists for volumes 1-3 followed in each instance by a track listing. The mixes are designed to fit onto an 80-minute-long CD-R with a standardized two-second interval between tracks. I got a little carried away last year, so three additional volumes will follow next week!
1. The Tallest Man on Earth – There’s No Leaving Now
2. ScHoolboy Q – Sacrilegious
3. Kathleen Edwards – House Full of Empty Rooms
4. Kishi Bashi – Atticus, In the Desert
5. Alex Winston – Locomotive
6. Hospitality – Betty Wang
7. Chromatics – The River
8. Baroness – Mtns. (The Crown & Anchor)
9. John Talabot – Depak Ine
10. Passion Pit – Love Is Greed
11. Jens Lekman – The End of the World Is Bigger Than Love
12. Tim Fite – Hold Me All Night
13. Thee Oh Sees – Lupine Dominus
14. Cloud Nothings – Stay Useless
15. El-P, feat. Nick Diamonds and Killer Mike – Stay Down
16. Shearwater – Animal Life
17. Spiritualized – So Long You Pretty Thing
18. Japandroids – Continuous Thunder
1. Frankie Rose – Pair of Wings
2. Matt Elliott – This Is For
3. Lee Fields & The Expressions – Moonlight Mile
4. Cardinal – Northern Soul
5. Odd Future, feat. Mike G – Forest Green
6. Laura Gibson – Milk-Heavy, Pollen-Eyed
7. Mark Lanegan – St. Louis Elegy
8. Kendrick Lamar – Black Boy Fly
9. Sleigh Bells – End of the Line
10. Leonard Cohen – Come Healing
11. Regina Spektor – How
12. Mux Mool – Baba
13. Purity Ring – Ungirthed
14. The Shins – Simple Song
15. Poliça – Amongster
16. Standard Fare – Older Women
17. Alcest – Faiseurs de Mondes
18. Trailer Trash Tracys – Los Angered
19. The Mountain Goats – Harlem Roulette
20. Mac DeMarco – My Kind of Woman
1. Lambchop – Buttons
2. Porcelain Raft – Is It Too Deep for You?
3. Dirty Projectors – Gun Has No Trigger
4. Estelle, feat. Janelle Monáe – Do My Thing
5. Justin Townes Earle – Unfortunately, Anna
6. Sharon Van Etten – All I Can
7. The Chap – What Did We Do?
8. Islands – Hallways
9. Swans – Lunacy
10. The Twilight Sad – Alphabet
11. New Build – Misery Loves Company
12. Tindersticks – Show Me Everything
13. Lana Del Ray – Off to the Races
14. Julia Holter – Moni Mon Amie
15. The Maccabees – Pelican
16. Craig Finn – Jackson
17. Tennis – Origins
18. Lotus Plaza – Out Of Touch
19. Pop. 1280 – West World
About the Author
Andy Horbal is the Media Resources Librarian at the University of Maryland. He’s got poetry in him.
For additional site and author info, click here
