Gordio

Just went to EB Greens Sunday. For my money, that place & Kennedy's Cove are the 2 best places to get a steak in WNY. I have clients come in often from NYC & they usually stay at either the Hyatt or The Adams Mark. They always ask me where they can get a good steak after work. I always shoot them over to EB greens(especially if they are staying at the Hyatt). 9 out of 10 times they will say something like "you can not get a steak like that in NYC" & believe it or not they can not believe how cheap it is. I mean like you said it was $42 for the bone in ribeye Sunday but in NYC you would be paying about $100 & the steak would not be half as good.

LOL. Yeah I hear ya. I like betting the smaller conferences better actually. I see better value on the lines. You have to study the teams but I do better outside the BCS conferences.

When the brackets are flipped as much as this year noone nails the bracket. It is all about getting the most points. I am in a pool with 150 people in & not one entry had more then one final four team picked correctly. Hence the pool is basically won in the first weekend of the tournament. Obviously, noone is going to pick VCU or Butler. You would be crazy to pin your bracket on an 8 & 11 seed. Everybody in my pool went with Kansas/Ohio St. I took Kentucky to make the championship getting beat by Kansas. There are a few people in the pool that picked UCon to make the championship. Funny thing is you get 1pt for the first rnd, 2 for the second, 4 for the 3rd, 8 for the fourth, 16 for the finals & 25pts for the champion. Usually in a normal year 180 points or around there wins it. This year, the winner could have as little as 80 points.

I never said I was routing for Cal. It is more about routing against Calhoun, I do not like the guy & of course being a Syracuse fan has alot to do with it. Plus if Kentucky beats Conn Saturday, I win $300 in the bracket pool I am in.

This has been one amazing tournament. I could not believe what I was watching with VCU/Kansas yesterday. Kansas would cut the lead to 5-6 pts & then VCU would come right back down the floor & drill a three. I do not know how Saturday is going to go. On one hand, I do not know how Butler does it they just keep winning. They had no business even being in that game saturday against Florida, but they did not panic, made key shots down the stretch & came out victorious. Why Florida abandoned their low post game in the end I will never know. Macklin looked like he could do anything he wanted out there for the better part of the game. I like Butler in the first game. I trust them a little more. I watched VCU all year(bet alot on the Colonial Athletic) & they were just not a very good team. They should of never got into the tournament I think there run ends Saturday. The 2nd game is interesting. I just can not route for that cheater Calhoun. Uconn will be tough but in the end I think Kentucky has the more talented team & will prevail. It will be a close game though.

Well first off, your hypothetical situation is a bit flawed. If the bills were to lose every game or finish last there is noway Gabbert does not see the field at some point this year. But say if we did take Gabbert there is noway we take Luck the following year. The Bills would have about $100 million in guaranteed to 2 QBs. If we did have the number #1 again next year & were fortunate enough to have it the year Luck comes out, my guess is Nix would hold an auction & get about 2 years worth of draft picks for the right to pick Luck.

Yeah Barnes puts some talented teams together but does not seem like he could get over the hump. The one time it looked like they had a chance to knock down the door he runs into C Anthony & Cuse in the final. Noone was beating the Orange with melo playing like he did in that tournament. In Barne's defense, noway that was a 5 second call. The ref was still motioning with his hand when the timeout was granted.

Yeah fun weekend & the games were great. My bracket is pretty blown out with the Pitt debacle & then Texas somehow blowing that game last night. Oh well. Still a fun weekend & there was some great games. Already looking forward to next weekend & some interesting matchups.

Now that I look at it the region is kinda brutal. Kentucky is the best 4 seed out there, UNC is probably the best #2 seed out there & Ohio St is the best team in the country. Xavier is always a tough out & Washington could beat anybody in the bracket on a given night. My guess is Cuse probably gets dumped by X in the 2nd round. I just like the matchup that Syracuse has with UNC if the brackets hold. I would be shocked if UNC does not get out of the 1st round in Charlotte. Which brings me to a complaint I have. Why is it that UNC/Duke always get to play in either Greensboro, Charlotte or Raleigh on the first weekend. One of those sites usually host the 1st weekend. UNC/Duke are smart. They are never the hosts(I do not even know if the Tournament would allow a place like Chapel Hill/Durham to host tournament games), but man what an unfair advantage. & when they do not get to play in the state of NC on the first weekend usually one of those teams has a chance to play in Charlotte in the Regionals the second weekend. It just seems unfair.

That is going to be a real tough ticket especially with Ohio St in that pod. I think cuse is going to have a tough game friday but I really like their draw. Indiana St is not bad, I think they have won 9 out of 10. Then my guess is they are going to get Xavier. If they could get by the 1st weekend, I got to like their chances against UNC. UNC does not have the perimeter play to bust open that zone. & then after that who knows. If they are fortunate enough to get to Newark, I got to believe they are going to be playing in front of a home court crowd no matter who they play. Go Cuse!!!

Okay, the brackets have been set & the matchups are in place. This tournament is wide open this year. I am looking at some of 5/12 matchups & 6/11 matchups & there is not much difference between the teams. Arizona vs Memphis in a 5/12 game should be a good one. The one game I am really looking forward to on Froday believe it or not is Oakland/Texas. Oakland has got this kid Keith Benson, he is a strong post player & future NBA player. Game is in Tulsa so I got to figure home court edge will go towards Texas. Texas gets by that game & I actually like them to run the field(including beating Duke in the sweet 16) until they run into San Diego St in the elite 8. I got Ohio St/Kansas/SD St/Pitt in the final 4 with Ohio St beating Kansas in the National Championship. I watched alot of College BBall this year & I believe those 2 teams are the most complete. Crazy things happen in the tournament though & I would not be surprised if one of the 1 seeds do not make it out of the 1st weekend. Anybody have anything special planned for this weekend. I usually take a 1/2 day on Thursday & meet some of my friends at one of the local bars in the afternoon. Then on Friday I have all my friends come over for my annual tournament party. One of my favorite days of the year. I give the wife my credit card & tell her to go shopping to get her out of the house. She will take the kids & sleep over her parents house that night. I get up early, look at the lines, determine what teams I am going to lose my money on that day & tap the keg around 11am. From that point my friends(most of them I have known since high school 20 years ago) start trickling into my house. Should have about 10-15 people there. We drink, grill out(hopefully the weather is decent, calling for mid 50's Friday)& watch the games all day from noon to midnight. A poker game usually breaks out at some point during the day. A few of the guys that come over this is the only time I see them all year so we always have alot to talk about. Guys will trickle in all day. Some guys will be over my house at 10:30am & camp out all day, other guys will come in for an hour 2 after taking a long lunch at work. Just a fun day all the way around. I have 3 tvs in the basemnet so you get to watch the game of your choice. I will make some dips, throw some burgers on for lunch & then around 6pm I will come out with some strip steak & baby back ribs. The grand finally occurs at 10pm when I get 2 female escorts & my friends & I take turns on them in my bedroom(okay so I made that last part up). Anyways, great day. I look forward to it more then the bills open, college football opening weekend, new years day & the super bowl. My favorite sporting day of the year. Anybody else got something exciting planned.

Notre Dame's contract is with NBC not ABC.

Well said. Could not agree more. The last few years I have really started to get into college football more then the NFL. Crowds are way more into it, the real fans still could afford to attend & I think the game is more interesting. If the bills ever get competitive I may change my tune but until then I could honestly say I could less if they even resolve this dispute anytime soon. I am not giving the Bills a dime of my money to renew my season tickets until this gets resolved too. If that means I lose my seats so be it.

Agreed, I think you can add kansas St. to that list also. Pullen has been playing out of his mind for the last month or so. They are going to be a tough out.

I really do not think they are holding him to a higher standard. I have read they have kicked regular students out also from time to time for violating these ethics code. People that are saying these ethics are ridiculous or hypocritical are missing the point. It is their school. The Mormons own it. They could do what they want. Noone puts a gun to their heads & tell them they have to go to BYU. If you want to have a good time, act like a crazy college kid & get the full college experience my suggestion is do not go to BYU. There are thousands of other schools that will be willing to take your money.

Pretty funny story, at least I think it is funny. When I was in my mid twenties a year or 2 out of college my friends & I went down to Savannah, Georgia one year for St Patty's weekend. Well, on St patty's day we were in the town square where all the festivities were & we were doing funnels. People must not do funnels down in the south because people were amazed at what we doing to the point where there was a large crowd gathering around us just watching us do funnels. Well anyways, there was a Girl Scout group selling cookies so one loud mouth in the crowd out of nowhere says he will buy $200 worth of cookies if me or one of my friends did a 4 beer funnel. Now at the point I was probably the best funnel man among my friends & I at the time. I did 2 beer funnels before & on occasion a 3 beer funnel, but never a 4 beer funnel. Well the whole crowd starts chanting "for the kids! for the kids!" & I basically had no choice but to do the dreaded 4 beer funnel. Somehow I got it down. We made sure the guy paid the girls, the mother with the girls thanked me for taking one for the team. I waited to things calmed down & found the nearest parking garage, went into a secluded corner & just starting hurling. I hope those girl scouts appreciated it.

In the College basketball world, especially as the calender turns to March this is a pretty big deal. BYU up to last week was ranked #3 & was probably going to get a #1 seed. Not anymore. He was their leading rebounder & 3rd leading score. He was basically their only inside player. My guess they are going to lose in MWC Tournament & then end being a 4/5 seed & probably get bumped in the first weekend. BYU basically has the most exciting player in the country this year in Jimmer Fredette(sp). I think he came out of Glen Falls too. Guy is averaging over 30pts a game, & not to sound racist but it is kind of cool seeing a white guy do the stuff he does on the basketball court. This guy is alot of fun to watch. As far as the ruling I thought it was harsh but then again I am not Morman & I would never sign up for those kind of rules. I got to give BYU credit for putting their honor code above winning, because they had a serious chance of making the final four this year before the suspension. I really just do not think they could match up right now with an athletic team like North Carolina. Like I said I will be surprised if they make it out of the first weekend now which is a shame because like I said Jimmer is fun to watch. I hate it how noone on this board likes college basketball. This is the best time of year as far as sports is concerned imho.

There is an RV place right down Southwestern about 2 miles from the Stadium. There whole parking lot is filled with RVs. Some of them look amazing. Not sure what the place is called & not sure if they just sell them or if they rent them to. You may want to start your research there though. Like I said about a 2 minute drive from the stadium.

I hear ya. I have been to SF 2 times & it is one of my favorite cities I have been to. I am just saying, unless you have a real good job there your quality of life is probably not that great due to how expensive it is to live there.

I doubt it. They had the average household income in SF as $108M, which was definately above most cities. Buffalo which was actually listed as the 4th best place to get the best value on real estate had an average household income of $58M. However the example of the house they showed in SF was a 1,200 square foot ranch & it went for $550M. The average person in SF even making $108M annually can not even afford that. I am not defending Buffalo's employment all I was trying to say was if you are one of the lucky ones who have a good paying job in WNY you could live better here then in a place like SF. & it is always fun finding people like yourself that have moved away from WNY, have 18,000 + posts on a BUFFALO message board & find the need to trash the area every chance you get. You must feel like a big man.

Well last week they had an article that rated San Francisco the place where you get the least bang for your money in terms of real estate. We may not make alot of money here in WNY, but at least we could afford to live in decent houses, unlike where you live.

I absolutely love Quinn. I love the size, the speed. If he runs anywhere near a 4.38 at the combine he could very well go #1. Originally I wanted the bills to possibly trade down to 7 or 8 with some team that fell in love with Newton/Peterson & pick up an extra 2nd & still be able to grab Quinn, but I do not think he will be around past #5 now.

I have been to quite a few stadiums. I have been to Tampa, Carolina, Dallas(their old stadium), Lambeau, Meadowlands(the old one), Heinz, Jacksonville, Miami, Detroit, Arrowhead. I would rate lambeau number one & Arrowhead probably number #2 but I would take the Ralph over any of the other stadiums. I realize the Ralph is outdated & kinda a dump but I feel like it is our dump. I am there to watch a football game, not order an expresso or some IPA brew that you can not get anywhere else. A bud will do just fine for me. Their is alot of wear and tear on the stadium parking lot(really guy you could repave any year now) but what makes it awesome is the lot is so conducive to tailgating. The lots are huge & open. Your not parking under a viaduct or overlooking a thruway. I read a report one time on the Ralph & the author summed up the gameday experience perfectly. He said "it is like a high school football game on steroids". Fans are for the most part friendly(at least from my experience) & always willing to invite you in on their tailgate. I have heard people complain about getting in & out of the stadium which I do not understand either. We have no trouble getting in(we usually get there at 8am though) but getting out you just got to know a few tricks. We park in lot 5 & just park on the inside of the lot. Once you get onto the main strip to get in & get on Southwestern we are home in 15 minutes. I am sure every stadium has certain tips & tricks & if you know them it will make your commute alot less time. As far as the in game atmosphere. I have had seasons for 12 years now & have noticed a difference over the years. It is a little more nastier, a little more drunk & aggressive. I think partly to blame is the byproduct on the field though. If they ever get good again, I think you will see the gameday festivities more about the game & less about getting drunk in the parking lot. Overall I like the Ralph though & I will be sad to see it go when the time comes.

Do not take anything Tom says personal. I get the feeling Tom does not like anybody including himself. One thing in this whole thread was absolutely correct. Tom is the biggest ahole on this board. See you got to understand something about Tom. He admits that he does not have a friend in the world & the only people he hangs out with are his wife & occassionally his wife's friends. It is actually kinda sad. Maybe if he treated people with more respect he would have more friends. One thing I have never understood. I have been on this board for about 5 years now I believe & in that time I have seen Tom throwout daily insults at people(this post is a perfect example). Calling people idiots, morons, in this post monkey boy yet he never gets suspended. I do not get it. BTW, I agree the Middle East is one messed up region.

Settle down there, I was just simply stating that Fitz's stats were not bad last year. He was the least of our problem. If Nix believes there is a franchise qb @ 3 then by all means grab him. Why force the issue though? This teams has holes all over the field. Take the BPA.