Biggest disappointment of the season: NY Jets
Expectations for this team are simply too high. They barely made the playoffs last year then, yes, did go on a “magical” run – mainly because nobody took them seriously and they played over their heads. They aren’t the most talented team in the league and it’s very unlikely they’ll be able to play all out, 100% sell out football on every play of every game this season. They will miss the playoffs.

Honorable mention to the Vikings – Favre is very unlikely to repeat his amazing year of last season and with Chester Taylor gone will AP have the stamina to be great all season long when he’s picking up blitzes on 3rd down all season?

Biggest positive surprise of the season: San Francisco 49ers
Another year of experience for Alex Smith, an arsenal of weapons around him and a solid defense in a weak division makes the 49ers a likely playoff contender.

Honorable mention to  the Oakland Raiders – Jason Campbell is no star QB but he’s a big upgrade at the position and Oakland has some RBs to throw out there.

So who wins it all you ask?
Let’s start in the divisions:

AFC East Champion: New England Patriots – Remember them?  They still have Tom Brady last time we checked.
AFC North Champion: Baltimore Ravens – A very impressive offense to go with that D – we like that!
AFC West Champion: San Diego Chargers  - Chargers by default here. Raiders will challenge so could KC or Denver.
AFC South Champion: Indianapolis Colts – A bit by default again, Titans have a change to make some noise as does Houston if they ever play D.

AFC Wildcards
Tennessee Titans – Not entirely sold on Vince Young as a solution but they have many weapons.
The 2nd WC is wide open – we’ll lean to Cincinnati beating out the Jets, Bills, Steelers and Texans in a weird tie-breaker.

And in the NFC……

NFC East Champion: Dallas Cowboys – They simply have too much talent not to win the slightly down division.  Although watch out for Washington!

NFC North Champion: Green Bay Packers – They won’t likely lose at home so only 4-4 on the road gives them 12 wins and the division.

NFC West Champion: San Francisco 49ers – Arizona will fall hard this year, St Louis a few years away and although Seattle might make some noise the Niners have the most balance in the division.

NFC South Champion: New Orleans Saints – Don’t want to say by default here because they Saints are an excellent team but only Atlanta has the potential to challenge and we aren’t sold on the Falcons.

NFC Wildcards
This could be jumbled mess as we see a lot more bad teams in the NFC than AFC which means about 6 teams could be challenging for 2 spots here…..Eagles, Giants, Redskins, Vikings, Falcons, Panthers.
We’ll look for Minnesota and Philadelphia to emerge.

The Championship Games

Green Bay over New Orleans (in Green Bay) – The in Green Bay factor will be significant here.

Baltimore over New England – The Ravens are the most balanced team in the AFC and it will show in a hard fought win to go the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl Champ

Green Bay Packers over Baltimore Ravens – Defense wins championships, right?  Yes but what many will expect to be a low scoring will not be but ultimately Aaron Rodgers as Super Bowl MVP gets it done.

NFL Week 1 Picks coming soon!  And stay with ScottsPicks.com all season for football picks!

We’re working hard to be ready at ScottsPicks.com – should be another great one!

Predicting a no hitter is a bit silly of course, it takes some luck and goes without saying is rather rare. But with Strasburg’s stuff it’s possible any time I suppose and against an offensively challenged team (again, despite their mis-leadingly high BA so far this season) it’s perhaps a bit more likely today. We’ll see at 4:35 ET.

But it was extremely frustrating to watch the US teams this year. They were terrible. I don’t like saying that. They are not high paid professional athletes and in fact the US Olympic commitment to Curling is rather embarrassing as it’s essentially nothing. But still, they were really bad. The announcers kept saying they were playing well and just getting some bad breaks. Maybe that was true but more true was the fact that both Shuster and McCormick consistently missed shots and missed them badly and missed them at very key times. Again, not fair to these teams who dedicate a lot of time, their own time, to represent our country in the Olympics. Hats off to our teams for being there and putting in the time.

But the USA has to do better, we need to commit to having a team that doesn’t embarrass itself on the ice.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I like the theory of replay the execution is a complete joke. They blow calls horribly on the field then replay for some technicality or another can’t even be used then when it can be used they still find a way to blow the call.

Penn State is quietly rolling over early season opponents – again.

Auburn’s D might be back!

The total on the South Carolina/Georgia game was 38 – BOTH teams went over by themselves!

Not so fast (again) for Tennessee. Not so fast for Missouri.

Yes, BYU is really good.

Michigan over Notre Dame is a HUGE win for the Wolverines! Let down next week?

Oklahoma State – can you say HUGE disappointment? That’s what a let down looks like….

Boise State – just keep rolling! And Tulsa and is Nebraska back?

Biggest thought on Saturday night as the very late games are underway…..NFL Sunday is just hours away!

But it’s been worth the wait!! COLLEGE FOOTBALL PICKS ARE NOW POSTED!

Good Luck!

Can’t wait to see the Henry brothers in a KU uniform starting this fall!

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!