89thandbroke – It will come as no surprise to know that the PGA Championship will be celebrating its 45th anniversary onitors Thursday, one of the great events in the history of the LPGA. Of course, because of all the years it has been, the event has become a much more eventful one at the Masters. During the 20 years I have been around, I have seen everything from the potential to the ridiculous.
fresh faces to the old, traditionalist, country-club cirlos of golf. It just seems to be a party outside of Clemson University golf course home course. I am one of those wondering why the event has become more of a celebration and gathering for the friends and family of the pros.
Not a whole lot of things have changed, but the structure of the event has definitely gotten bigger. It used to be a 74-hole event. This year, the Open will be held on the same course, but it will be extended to about 85. That is a long ways to go for close to the size of the tournament in 2004. The course has changed the face quite a bit, but so have the players.
There are 15 teams in this year’s field, which compared to the 20 in 2004 is now loaded with some very good teams. As always, you can bet there will be some big name head coaches and some very recognizable college and pro players in fields. The odds makers are not always going to make the top four in the field, but they all usually have a few teams in the field that are making a run. There is more parity in the LPGA right now than in any other season. Of the last 27 champions, only three teams made the event in 2004.
Betting the NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association set up a trust fund called the Coach’s Association College Football Trust Fund. It bought lifetime memberships to NCAA member colleges and built a position of trust with the schools. It conducts public policies regarding collegiate athletics and works with the Division I-A and Division II colleges. It monitors the money coming in and out of the conferences.
The Trust Fund can be used to buy a license and guarantee that all teams are aboveboard. It also provides educational assistance to college football players. The money brought in from a conference is matched by the conference itself, creating a pot of $1,000,000. In the last four years, the woman’s tournament has done remarkably well.
Betting the NCAA
uls won the national title in 1801, and since then, no school has ever won the national championship twice. In order of wins, schools have followed this type of pattern:
- 1961: Notre Dame (Beat LSU)
- 1962: Ohio State (Beat Michigan)
- 1963: Miami (Florida) (Beat Georgetown)
- 1964: Ohio State (Beat Michigan State)
- 195? Michigan (Beat Illinois)
resilience was then considered a measure of quality. It was like saying a pickup truck was better than a Ford car. It wasn’t rocket science, but having a few extra first-round wins can put a program over the top. Almost every year since Bobby Bowden left Ohio State in the late 1980s, the Buckeyes lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament. In the 2002 field, they had the longest run without a national championship, going 13-17-1. In 2004 they had six wins, the most in any single year since scoreboard was invented.
Why this happened, and what the heck did all of this mean for Ohio State? When the streak was over, the Buckeyes needed only a single possession in regulation to complete the blemish at East Lansing, 68-65. And they did it against a likely top-25 opponent. How often does a team rise from obscurity to challenge for the national championship? Even better, how often does a team win its conference when it has not played a game in a pokergalaxy conference?
Against Xavier.
This was as close to a puritan statement as you can get. I’m not even going tour this prediction out yet because I haven’t even aired the dumbest prediction yet. It was just too good to pass up, too funny to pass up, and it was inspired by nothing more than a player ejection, which I’ll explain later. We’re not giving out too many 3-0 predictions today because it’s still early, but let’s just get right to it. Good luck, as always…Al McMordie.