Randy Couture is the coolest badass I know

I stumbled across this UFC 102 pre-fight blog and have now decided that Randy Couture is undoubtedly the coolest dude in the UFC.

September ALREADY?!

Well my summer has officially flown by, and here I am pondering the MLB playoff race, the college football season which officially kicks off tomorrow, and of course the NFL.

- First, I gotta mention my experience in Rochester this past weekend. I was fortunate enough to witness my first roller derby "bout" between the Roc City Roller Girls and the Tri City Rollers. I was skeptical at first, thinking this would just be some kind of lame exhibition featuring women on roller skates. But let me be the first to tell you that it's alot more than just women on skates.

There is strategy and scoring (which I'm not going to attempt to explain) and a ton of wipeouts and hard hitting. It's also somewhat of a freak show, with crazy nicknames (such as Resident Eva and Lippy Wrongstockings) and uniforms to enhance the show. The cool thing is that players, fans, and coaches all accept this borderline freak show status, acknowledging that this uniqueness is what sets roller derby apart from other sports. So if you ever feel like watching a bunch of women bang into each other and slam onto a concrete rink, check out the Roc City Roller Derby.

- Alright, so I said way back when that the Giants would turn heads in the second half of the Major League Baseball season. And wouldn't you know it, here they are one game behind the Rockies for the NL Wild Card lead (they were tied yesterday, but San Fran ran into a buzzsaw named Cole Hamels last night).

I was watching Baseball Tonight the other night and Dave Winfield picked the Rockies to win the Wild Card because their top three starting pitchers are ridiculously good. When I heard that, I said out loud "wow Dave, are you on drugs?" Think about this for a minute - the Giants have what many consider to be the top two starting pitchers in the game (Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain - check them out in the upper right corner) and Barry Zito has been lights out since the All-Star game. In his last nine starts, Zito has only given up 12 total runs, and gone at least 6 IP in seven of those nine starts (and 5.2 IP in one of the other two). ALSO the Giants just swept the Rockies in a three game series by sending Lincecum, Zito, and Cain to the hill on successive days in San Fran. I'll acknowledge that I'm a little biased in favor of the Giants, but you can't argue with the series sweep. So listen Mr. Winfield, don't feed me a bunch of crap when I'm just trying to catch up on baseball scores and standings, OK?

- The college football season starts tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to the top-20 matchup between Boise State and Oregon (however, I'm not looking forward to being blinded by the "smurf-turf" of Bronco Stadium). I'm also looking forward to "Da-U" (Miami) facing off against Florida State on Monday night - nothing like a traditional inter-state rivalry to kick off the season.

- I'm planning a quality NFL preview for later this week/early next week. Got any predictions? Sleeper teams? Stat lines for Tom Brady/Michael Vick/Adrian Peterson/Brett Favre/Mark Sanchez? Lemme know what you think.

College Football Preview: Tebow, Tebow, and more Tebow!

Coming into this college football season, it seems like the name 'Tim Tebow' is included in any sort of Heisman, SEC, or National Championship conversation. And rightfully so. Tebow is poised to cap off his career at Florida and become one of the best players in college football history (not to mention he has the best William Wallace impression in college football).

Think about it: If Tebow's Gators win the National Championship this year, he'll leave school with three national titles and a Heisman trophy. If the Gators somehow don't win it all, but Tebow takes home the Heisman, he'll have two national titles and two Heisman trophies. And apparently winning college football hardware has its perks...

NO ONE has those kind of college football credentials. Archie Griffin is the only player to win the Heisman Trophy twice, but he never won a National Championship. Red Grange, listed by

ESPN as the best college football player of all-time, won a National Title for Illinois in 1923, but didn't have a trophy case close to that of Tebow's.

Arguments can be made as to whether Tim Tebow will end up as "The best college football player to ever live." But after this season, Tim Tebow very well may end up as "The most decorated college football player to ever live."

Here's a conference-by-conference breakdown the 2009 college football landscape:

SEC Champion: Florida Gators.

- The Southeastern Conference is the best in college football. The Gators return Tebow and a host of others, with the only major loss being that of Brandon Spikes on defense. If the Gators can survive a road trip to LSU (Oct. 10), I see them going undefeated.

Big 12 Champion: Texas Longhorns

- The 'Horns got screwed over last year, with a couple ridiculous tie-breakers leaving them out of the Big 12 championship game. Colt McCoy returns after bulking up in the off-season (I hear he's added 10-15 pounds) and looks to take Texas back to the promised land. The loss of Brian Orakpo on defense hurts, but if the Longhorns can take care of Sam Bradford and Oklahoma on October 17th, look for them to run the table.

Big Ten Champion: Penn State

- The Big Ten is a two team race this year between Ohio State and the Nittany Lions. The return of Terrell Pryor makes the Buckeyes dangerous, but with the loss of Beanie Wells and Michael Jenkins, I gotta give the nod to Penn State (It's not like this conference has any clout, however, losing their last four trips to the Rose Bowl and Ohio State losing twice in National Title games).

Big East Champion: South Florida

- In a mediocre conference, I gotta go with the team with the two biggest names - Matt Grothe and George Selvie. West Virginia and Cincinnati may challenge the Bulls, but look for South Florida to end up on top (unlike the Big Ten, the Big East has won three of its last four BCS bowl games).

PAC 10 Champion: Oregon

- Somewhat going out on a limb here and picking against USC, mainly because of the QB issues in Southern Cal. Oregon has

an X-factor under center in Jeremiah Masoli, which could be the difference between the Ducks and Trojans this year.

BCS Buster: TCU

- The Horned Frogs are ranked in the top-20 of both major polls. They have two tough games on their schedule - September 12th at Virginia, and October 24th at BYU. If they can win both of those games, look for Texas Christian to break into the BCS bowl party.