That's right, ladies and gentleman, it's that time again. What time is it , you ask? IT'S THE MOST...WONDERFUL TIIIME...OF THE YEEEAR. It always bugs me when people talk about how these games don't matter. Those people just don't truly "get" college football. I have a feeling they're the kind of people that prefer pro football and just watch college football because it's more football. Tell Colorado State and Bowling Green it doesn't matter. Tell Navy and Brigham Young. This is the biggest game many of these teams will play all year. It's a chance to attract recruits. It's a chance to celebrate their seasons by playing on national television in a game that--with a few exceptions--is the only football game on television. Two fan bases travel across the country and pack a stadium at a neutral site for this celebration that swirls around the high holidays like a magical Christmas snow. New Year's Day bowl games are a sacred ritual....

OK, I have to admit, I wasn't planning on writing one of these this week. I've been sickly busy with school shit and just wasn't feeling up to it. But I just had to cap off the season strong and I couldn't just not say anything about quite possibly one of the greatest games ever played last week. It was already the biggest, most important Iron Bowl ever with the highest combined ranking of the two teams and the first time ever that the game would literally decide who goes to the SEC championship game. It was already one of the best games in a generation when Auburn overcame a 21-7 deficit and a soul-crushing 99 yard TD pass to tie it up at 28 and seemingly send it into overtime. Then...it happened. What some are calling the greatest ending in the storied history of college football. Better, even, than the fabled "Band Is on the Field" Cal/Stanford ending in 1982. The sports media is often (rightly) accused of being prisoners of the moment. Every time ...

That's right, ladies in gentlemen, it's the second MOOOST WONDERFUL WEEEEEK OF THE YEEEAR! (next to Bowl Week, which is slowly approaching) So, let's not waste any time! Last Week Overall: 2-3 Upsets: 1-3 Season Overall: 51-19 Upsets: 11-10 12:00pm -- #2 Florida State @ Florida -- ESPN This is easily my favorite season in Gator history. And it's not getting any better today. FSU is favored by 28.5 and I would take them with the spread in a heartbeat. If they don't hang at least half a hundred on the Gators, the Buckeyes should play for the national title. Hobbitcore sez: Florida State 12:00pm -- #3 Ohio State @ Michigan -- ABC On paper, this one looks like a blowout too but I'm not sure the Buckeyes are the world-beaters everyone thinks they are and the Big House is always rocking for the biggest game of the year. This one could be closer than the experts think, at least for a while. I'm not ready to wake up the Upset Hobbit but he did...

Another week, another upset or two I wish I had pulled the trigger on. And another embarrassing Canes loss. This has been a bit of a rough week for me and I've been pretty busy so I'm sure glad it's Saturday and I know I can't let my four or five adoring fans down! Last Week Overall: 2-2 Upsets: 1-1 Season Overall: 49-16 Upsets: 10-7 3:30pm -- #12 Texas A&M @ #22 LSU -- CBS (UPSET ALERT) This is a really tough pick. Two high powered offenses facing inconsistent defenses. LSU is 31-2 at home in the last five years (and favored by 5, surprisingly) but Johnny Manziel is undefeated on the road in his career. It's heart v. head again--Upset Hobbit's heart is telling him Johnny Football will go out with something to prove in the Heisman race and break out to lead his team to victory but his head is saying that LSU is just too tough at home and too balanced on offense for A&M's defense. We've been going head way too often. This week, w...

So, inevitably there comes a day when you just look stupid. For me, that day happened twice: last Thursday and last Saturday. It's funny because I used to take a lot more risks. A few years ago I probably would have picked Baylor and Stanford. Maybe I need to do some soul-searching and start taking more risks on this thing. Let's see what happens... Last Week Overall: 1-3 Upsets: N/A Season Overall: 47-14 Upsets: 9-6 3:30pm -- #25 Georgia @ #7 Auburn -- CBS (UPSET ALERT) The Upset Hobbit seems convinced that this will be a better game than it might seem with Georgia slowly returning to full strength. The key, obviously, will be Georgia's ability to defend Auburn's running game but there are other things to watch for as well. Upset Hobbit will be looking to see who makes the most mistakes, specifically who turns the ball over. A big part of the success of Auburn's running game is their ability to make big plays downfield when the defense starts to cr...

So there's a video that's in the process of going viral right now and I'd like to say a word or two about it. I found it on Upworthy, which is pretty much the most prominent launchpad for liberal viral media. Here's the link to the post on Upworthy:  http://www.upworthy.com/i-never-thought-id-want-to-high-five-a-teacher-for-yelling-at-a-student-but-i-was-wrong?c=ufb1 And here's the video itself: SHAME IS NOT A TEACHING TOOL. SHAME IS NOT A TEACHING TOOL. SHAME IS NOT A TEACHING TOOL. I'll say it until I'm blue in the face. This made me sick to my stomach. For starters, did it ever occur to this woman that women (particularly women who don't look the way women are "supposed" to look--e.g. with an outward appearance that gives off some impression of queerness) are at least comparably open and vulnerable to oppression and persecution as are people of color? "You can change your hair" is a piss poor argument against people who a...

So there's this article that seems to be making its rounds around the internets at the moment by this unbearable douchebag by the name of "Roger Sterling, Jr." entitled "Why Girls Should Not Cut Their Hair Short." The article is written for a [sarcasm]seemingly very nuanced and classy[/sarcasm] blog called "Total Frat Move" where Mr. Sterling is a regular contributor. If the title of the article doesn't already have your blood boiling, stay tuned. It gets so much worse. (And I get that it seems a little petty to reprimand some random blogger but the sentiments he expresses are symptomatic of a much more comprehensive cultural problem we have in our society with patriarchy and body image and this article is a good excuse to talk about it.) I guess I shouldn't be particularly surprised or outraged at what spews out of the fingertips of a guy who thinks he's a character on Mad Men--or at least the illegitimate son of one (this is his a...

So I've really been trying to avoid covering Thursday games this year because, frankly, as you've seen, it's hard enough to get this thing done by Saturday morning. This week, however, it was unavoidable as the two biggest games of the week are BOTH Thursday night games--one of them a matchup of two top ten teams and the other a meeting of two top five teams. Not including these would kinda defeat the purpose of this column so I'm coming at you early this week because I love you all and want you to be happy (or something). ALSO THIS WEEK: I will be tweeting LIVE from the Miami/Virginia Tech game at Sun Life Stadium Last Week Overall: 4-0 Upsets: 0-1 Season Overall: 46-11 Upsets: 9-6 THURSDAY 7:30pm -- #10 Oklahoma @ #6 Baylor -- FOX SPORTS 1 Baylor has been mighty impressive so far this year, averaging nearly 64 points PER GAME. But they still have yet to play a team with anything resembling a pulse and will now spend the next five weeks in the states ...

So at the very last minute an old friend of mine who works at the BB&T Center was able to snag me an extra ticket to see the almighty NIИ live in concert. It was my first time ever seeing NIИ live and it definitely did not disappoint. I'll have a full review up soon but for now, I was inspired to craft this sweet mix CD of 20th century NIИ songs (their 21st century material doesn't really do it for me). Enjoy! 1. Pinion 2. Wish 3. Mr. Self Destruct 4. Somewhat Damaged 5. The Day the World Went Away 6. Heresy 7. March of the Pigs 8. Something I Can Never Have (Still) 9. The Frail 10. The Wretched 11. We're In This Together 12. The Fragile 13. Just Like You Imagined 14. Dead Souls 15. Head Like a Hole 16. Terrible Lie 17. Hurt

Had my worst week of the year last year. The games are getting harder and harder to predict, as they almost always do at this time of the year. Last Week Overall: 2-3 Upsets: 0-1 Season Overall: 42-11 Upsets: 9-5 3:30pm -- #21 Michigan @ #22 Michigan State -- ABC This is one of those fascinating matchups where one team (Michigan) has a solid offense but no defense and the other team (MSU) has a great defense but no offense. I love these matchups because not only will it be interesting to see Michigan's offense take on Sparty's D but I love watching the other side of the ball to see who can screw up least. What makes this even more difficult to pick is that while I feel confident that Sparty's D is better than Michigan's offense, I also feel confident that the Spartan offense is significantly worse than the Wolverines' defense. At the end of the day, I think MSU's defense makes enough plays on a mistake-prone Michigan offense to put their own offen...

OK. The whole "Road to Hell in a Cell" thing kinda went off a cliff, so-to-speak. What can I tell you? I've been a busy guy lately. But I promise I'm going to make it up to you--and here's how: first of all, with this in-depth preview of the Hell in a Cell PPV, going match-by-match to unravel the story behind it (if any) and prognosticate on what might happen, what should happen, and what will happen; then, on Sunday, I will be tweeting LIVE from Section 306 of the American Airlines Arena at HELL IN A CELL 2013 starting at 7pm (my Twitter handle is @bioponic ); and finally, the following morning, I will be posting a full recap of Hell in a Cell right here at Vundablog.com! So without further ado, let's get right to it... WWE Intercontinental Championship Match -- Curtis Axel (c) v. Big E Langston (Pre-Show) How We Got Here: That's a good question, actually. Basically, CM Punk had a match with Big E to gear up for Ryback and after Punk defeated B...

I know, I know, I've been gone a long time. I've been a busy man these last couple weeks. I'm also starting to realize that it's time to dramatically reimagine these posts. They simply take up too much of my time and I always seem to either barely get it posted before noon Saturday or not even make it and have to post a half-assed version until I finish--and sometimes I don't even post it at all. So I'm taking a pair of scissors to this column. First of all, no more headlines. Coming up with headlines every week is always the most time-consuming part and it's really not important enough to continue doing it. So from now on, it will be straight to the picks. Also, all the crap at the bottom--the Heisman ballot, out-of-whack spreads, BCS projections--is out too. Maybe when we start getting down to the last few weeks I'll start making separate posts about the Heisman and the BCS but predicting it every week is pointless. I also won't be making pic...

Last Week Overall: 6-2 Upsets: 2-0 Season Overall: 32-8 Upsets: 7-2 HEADLINES -This is getting ri-god-damn-diculous. Now the NCAA's obsession with amateur athletes not getting ANY compensation whatsoever has reached a point where  an Alabama assistant has been placed on indefinite leave for giving a loan of less than $500 to Ha Ha Clinton-Dix . Because GOD FOR-FUCKING-BID a kid with no money take a few hundred bucks from a coach to feed himself or pay rent. Can't have that shit. Ugh. -As many of you may know, next year begins the four-team playoff. The four teams will be selected by a selection committee much like the committee that chooses the 68-team field. Now, according to ESPN sources, Condoleezza Rice is going to be on the committee. There are way too many jokes forming in my head right now. -Last Saturday's LSU/Georgia matchup sure didn't disappoint as we were treated to our first instant classic of the season--a 44-41 Georgia win t...

RAW Come on, dude:  So we open Raw with the 10 guys who saved Daniel Bryan on Raw last week (RVD, Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston, The Usos, Primetime Players, R-Truth, Zach Ryder, and Justin Gabriel, whom I will henceforth refer to as the Proletariat) all lined up on stage for what appears to be another of Hunter's delightful town hall meetings.  Trips and Steph come out and WELCOME the crowd to MONDAY NIGHT RAW like so many Vinces past, complete with Steph all-too-conspicuously dropping a cheap "GREAT TO BE HERE IN (CURRENT CITY)!"  Long story short, it turns out they brought the Proletariat out to thank them for "taking matters into [their] own hands" and "finally being men" as if this were all some elaborate test.  HHH adds that he's sure it had nothing to do with Daniel Bryan but RVD cuts him off to inform him that they were, in fact, fighting for D-Bry.  "Wow," HHH exclaims, musing that he's never heard of a wrestler fighting F...

Last Week Overall: 8-2 Upsets: 2-1 (Wisconsin wasn't even close to an upset so that's the loss) Season Overall: 26-6 Upsets: 5-2 HEADLINES -This week's biggest headline happened off the field when  Electronic Arts (EA) Sports announced Thursday  that there would be no college football video game next year (what would have been "NCAA Football '15") due to ongoing legal issues with the NCAA.  Basically, several organizations including EA and the NCAA are being sued by thousands of student-athletes both past and present for the use of their names and/or likenesses in "NCAA Football."  Every organization has settled but the NCAA, who vows to continue the fight to keep their slaves--er, student ath-o-leets --from seeing any of the massive profits they generate for any number of organizations including the NCAA themselves.  Moreover, it remains unclear whether the plaintiffs who are active student athletes will be allowed under NCAA rules to...