Ramblings

• I am watching the ACC Championship Game (Boston College vs. Virginia Tech) right now. It is a major snoozefest. I am just watching this game while I wait for the SEC Championship Game (Alabama vs. Florida) to start. Although the two best teams in the SEC are national championship contenders and no ACC team is top 10 material, I believe the ACC has been the better conference this year.

I was harsh on the ACC early in the year, but the conference ended up solid (if unspectacular) from top to bottom. The SEC, on the other hand, is very top heavy. The ACC had 10 teams either tied or within one game of the division lead. 10 teams! I hate the word “parity” when talking about football – but the ACC had parity this year. The ACC has 10 bowl-eligible teams, compared to 8 in the SEC. The two teams that are not bowl-eligible in the ACC - UVa and Duke - were not easy outs for anyone either. UVa beat four bowl-eligible teams in October alone (and then choked away the season in typical Al Groh fashion). Duke beat Navy and Vanderbilt. The ACC won 6 out of 10 head-to-head meetings with the SEC, and Alabama or Florida had 3 of the 4 SEC wins.

• The hope it’s just a nasty rumor that The Roots are going to stop touring and become the house band for Jimmy Fallon when he takes over for Conan O’Brien next year. Letterman has Paul Shaffer. Conan has Max Weinberg. Leno has some guy named Kevin Eubanks. Jimmy Fallon is arguably the biggest douche of this group (Leno could make an argument for this title), yet Fallon gets the coolest house band? This seems like a curious career decision on the part of The Roots. The move will hurt their street cred.

• BDF brought up an interesting point recently. “60 Minutes” begins at 7 P.M. EST on Sunday nights. During the NFL season, it never begins on time and Jim Nantz always has to tell us “if you’re tuning in to see “60 Minutes,” it will air in it’s entirety following this NFL football action. Except on the West Coast.” Why not just push “60 Minutes” back to 7:30 during the NFL season? The 4 P.M. games never end before 7:15. Would it do any harm to show 15 minutes of highlights if the game does end early? Also, your grandparents could tune into CBS at 7:30 and not have to watch the last 20 minutes of the Chargers-Broncos game.

• Don’t drop the soap, O.J.

• In a world of miserable commercials, SONIC commercials never disappoint me. The two guys in the car are funny, and the married couple is even funnier. The bald guy is probably out-kicking his coverage, but he is hilarious. The sausage biscuit dippers are on my “to-do” list. On the other hand, GEICO commercials don’t do much for me. Enough with the cavemen and the gecko.

• I have been meaning to write about how unrealistic this season of “Entourage” was, but Sports Guy on ESPN.com beat me to it. Here is what he had to say about it (SPOILER ALERT):

“Well, the fifth season of "Entourage" wasn't implausible at all: I can totally see Vince's losing his career after one bad movie (so what if Colin Farrell has made 15 stinkers and keeps getting jobs?), becoming Hollywood poison, getting a job only because his agent passed up a $10-million-a-year studio head position to stay with him -- you know, because agents have such great character -- submarining an elaborate $120 million action movie that somehow came together in about 2.23 seconds because the director hated him (in the irony of ironies, because he didn't think Vince, a guy played by Adrian Grenier, could act), hitting rock bottom and moving back to Queens, then climactically rebounding with the lead in Martin Scorsese's new movie without ever auditioning for it, and while all of this was happening Jamie-Lynn Sigler fell in love with a jobless Turtle, and Johnny Drama starred on an NBC drama that normally would tape for 17 hours a day, unless your show stars Johnny Drama, in which case you tape once a month for a couple of minutes. Awesome. I'd ask for that 390 minutes of my life back, but it's my own fault for watching. I blame myself.”

I completely agree with Sports Guy, although I thought the season was mildly entertaining despite much of the bullshit that transpired. I mean, the actor that plays Turtle is allegedly dating Jamie-Lynn Sigler (Meadow Soprano) in real life, so maybe that plot line is not that far-fetched. Jeremy Piven (Ari) is a tremendous actor – it’s a shame he is surrounded by such mediocre acting and writing.

• Weird Al is an ageless wonder. He has done parodies of songs by Michael Jackson, Madonna, Coolio, the Chili Peppers, and many more. His latest parody of T.I. is not his best effort, but it's worth listening to.