Here’re my audacious prognostications for 2006, drafted for SportsFilter (explaining some of the inexplicable comments), in some sequencesemblance of occurence:
USC will beat Texas, though by less than 10 points, and Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and Vince Young will all be taken within the first six or eight picks of the April draft.
Chicago will shock Seattle but lose the Super Bowl, but Indy will not be the AFC team.
USA will surprise with its medal count but not come close in hockey where one of the Eastern European squads not named Russia will gold.
Cuba will play in the WBC and beat the US on the field. This will not be the championshp game, though, and I’m not predicting the winner.
Chelsea will run the EPL again, Liverpool and ManU will be in a dogfight for second and Arsenal will struggle but ultimately take the last CL slot. Kaka2002 will make a late run to win our fantasy league; StarFucker will climb out of the basement but never reach higher than 15th.
Barcelona will win La Liga and Champions League, beating one of the English sides in the Final. I will repeat as fantasy champion.
Some team will win the NHL; I’ll go out on a limb and say Rangers will surprise everyone, suffering the least after-effects of the Olympic tournament.
Pistons will stay healthy, finish the regular season with less than 10 losses and win the Finals in six games.
Italy will make a surprise run to the title match of the World Cup but lose out to a team that is not named Brazil, USA or Germany.
Yankees will justify the huge payroll and win the World Series. Bonds will be healthy and come close to 715 despite breaking (or coming close to breaking) his own walks in a season mark. Most comments on SpoFi will denigrate the accomplishments of both the Yankees and Bonds. Goddam will win the fantasy league and in a continuing run of luck will be hired by the NY Times to do graphics for the sports section of the website.
MLS, playing through the World Cup weeks, will end up losing several star players to injury in August and September. FC Dallas will break through and win the MLS Cup. The entire executive suite at AEG will vanish in a mystery that is never explained during the May board meeting.
USC and Texas, despite losing many players to graduation, will both rank in the pre-season Top 10 but LSU, mainly on the basis of destroying Miami yesterday, will start at #1. They will not go wire to wire but may still get to the BCS title bowl.
Poker as a popular sport will implode when scandals hit in both the real and virtual tournament worlds.
BillSaysThis 