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02/13/2012 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kentucky remained the top team in the latest Associated Press men's college basketball poll.
The Wildcats, who first had a two-week stay at No. 1 starting in late November, are the top team in the nation for a fourth straight week. They received 63 first-place votes and a total of 1,623 points from a nationwide media panel for the third consecutive week.
Syracuse, which preceded Kentucky at the top with a six-week run, held firm at No. 2 with the other two first-place votes. Missouri moved up a slot to third and fellow Big 12 member Kansas vaulted three places to fourth, while Duke leapt five spots to fifth.
Ohio State, which lost to Michigan State at home on Saturday, tumbled three places to sixth and the Spartans moved up four places to seventh. North Carolina, which lost on a last-second shot to Duke last week, fell three places eighth. Baylor was sixth last week, but tumbled to ninth after losing to both Kansas and Missouri.
Georgetown, despite an overtime loss to Syracuse last week, moved up two spots to 10th and is followed by UNLV, Marquette, San Diego State, Florida, Wisconsin, Murray State, Michigan, Indiana, Louisville and Florida State. Florida tumbled six spots from eighth after losses to Kentucky and Tennessee, and Murray State dropped seven places from ninth after suffering its first loss of the season at home against Tennessee State.
The last five teams ranked this week are Saint Mary's, Virginia, Notre Dame, Gonzaga and Wichita State. Gonzaga returned to the poll after a one-week absence following a 73-59 win over Saint Mary's, and Wichita State, which posted an 89-68 win over previously-ranked Creighton and is ranked for the first time this season, are tied for 24th.
Notre Dame is also ranked for the first time this season. The Fighting Irish have won six straight games, a stretch that started January 21 with a victory over then-unbeaten Syracuse.
Creighton was 17th last week, but its loss to Wichita State was its third in a row. Mississippi State also dropped out, as did Harvard, which was 25th before a loss Saturday at Princeton.
This week's ranked matchups include a Big Ten tussle on Thursday between Wisconsin and Michigan State in East Lansing and another Big Ten battle Saturday as Ohio State visits Michigan. Saturday's slate also features the BracketBuster contest between Saint Mary's and Murray State.
<< Benfica's Garcia out for Zenit match
Lisbon, Portugal (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Benfica midfielder Javi Garcia has been
ruled out for the first leg of the club's Champions League round of 16
encounter with Zenit St Petersburg on Wednesday.
Garcia missed the club's 4-1 wi
<< Sandusky can have contact with grandchildren
Bellefonte, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Penn State assistant coach Jerry
Sandusky can have contact with most of his grandchildren and will have a local
jury when his child sex abuse trial begins in May.
Sandusky is under electronic m
<< Udinese suffers double injury blow
Udine, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Udinese confirmed on Monday that midfielder
Mauricio Isla and striker Antonio Di Natale will both miss the next few weeks
after sustaining injuries in the club's 2-1 win over AC Milan.
Isla has tallied t
<< Villa's Dunne to miss two months
Birmingham, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aston Villa defender Richard Dunne is
set to spend the next two months on the sidelines after sustaining a broken
shoulder in Sunday's 1-0 defeat against Manchester City.
Dunne suffered the injury
Nets' Bogans has successful season-ending surgery >>
East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New Jersey Nets guard Keith Bogans
underwent successful season-ending surgery on Monday.
The procedure repaired a torn deltoid ligament as well as a fractured left
ankle, injuries which Bogans
Jets, Ducks swap centers >>
Winnipeg, MB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Winnipeg Jets have acquired center Maxime
Macenauer from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for center Riley Holzapfel.
Macenauer appeared in 29 games for the Ducks this season and has picked up a
goal with
Tretschok, Covic take charge of Hertha temporarily >>
Berlin, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Hertha Berlin players Rene Tretschok
and Ante Covic have been named caretaker managers of the club following the
departure of manager Michael Skibbe on Sunday.
Skibbe took charge over the winte
Sa Pinto replaces Paciencia at Sporting >>
Lisbon, Portugal (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sporting Lisbon fired manager Domingos
Paciencia on Monday and has replaced him with Ricardo Sa Pinto.
Sa Pinto has been promoted to manager from his role in Sporting's youth setup,
and the 39-year-ol
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
BILLS (+10) at Steelers SPORTSBOOK LINES
It's impossible to gauge how a team will react after something like the Steve Everett situation, and it probably doesn't matter. That being said, the Bills are going to lose several games this year where they keep things close but fall short in the end to superior teams. Ben Roethlisberger and company could have a field day against Buffalo's decimated defense, but I like the Bills to cover.
BENGALS (-7) at Browns SPORTSBOOK LINES
All you can ask out of your NFL team is that it has a plan. You may not always agree with it as a fan, but as long as it appears the organization is going in some sort of direction, you have to go with it. Which brings us to the Cleveland Browns. You flip a coin to determine whether Chuck Frye or Derek Anderson should start the preseason opener. You start Frye in Week 1, but pull him in the first half. And then you deal him to the Seahawks for a sixth-round pick? Hmm... the Bengals could get six turnovers again this week.
COLTS (-7) at Titans SPORTSBOOK LINES
Tennessee signed ex-Colts cornerback Nick Harper in the offseason so that should help slow down Peyton Manning. Just ask Jason David and the Saints. Oh wait... One of these weeks, I'm going to learn to not pick against Tennessee, which has won seven of its last eight games. But it's not happening against Indy.
TEXANS (+6.5) at Panthers SPORTSBOOK LINES
Houston's Mario Williams, the first pick in the '06 draft, has more touchdowns than Reggie Bush after one week. Somehow I don't see that lasting. Meanwhile, Carolina bottled up what was expected to be a pretty high-octane offense in St. Louis in Week 1. Could this be the Panthers' defense everyone expected last year? Maybe. This feels like a 20-16 Carolina win.
RAMS (-3) vs. 49ers SPORTSBOOKS LINES
Absolutely love this game. Everyone's favorite pick for this year's surprise team -- the 49ers -- laid an egg on Monday night (not that anyone was watching with the game ending in the middle of the night for those of us on the East Coast). St. Louis wasn't much better, delivering a lackluster effort against the Panthers that included two Steven Jackson fumbles and panic from his fantasy owners. Jackson rebounds this week, and the Rams get their first win.
PACKERS (+1.5) at Giants SPORTSBOOKS LINES
Do you really trust this guy to win an NFL game if Eli Manning can't go? I say no. I'd feel alot better about this Packers team if it had any semblance of a running game, but I still think Green Bay's defense is good enough to give it a 2-0 start.
JAGUARS (-10) vs. Falcons SPORTSBOOKS LINES
Does it scare me to pick Jacksonville to cover a double-digit spread after it scored just 10 points last week against the Titans? Absolutely. But can I bring myself to pick Atlanta under any circumstances? No. Check out this poll on ajc.com. It asks what Atlanta's most urgent deficiency is: offense, defense, specials teams or all of the above. "All of the above" has 57 percent of the votes. Ouch.
SAINTS (-3) at Buccaneers SPORTSBOOKS LINES
I'm picking way too many road teams this week. Oh well. New Orleans has had some time to reflect on its lackluster showing in the opener, and the Buccanneers just aren't a very good football team. Anyone else surprised Tampa Bay hasn't made a move to sign Byron Leftwich? I thought that's what they do.
VIKINGS (+3) at Lions SPORTS BETTING LINES
Run the ball and stop the run. Minnesota can do both, and that will keep them in a lot of games this season. Even though it was only one week, Adrian Peterson looks like he was a steal at No. 7 in last year's draft. Not only will he produce, but Peterson delivers excitement to what otherwise would be one of the league's most boring teams.
DOLPHINS (+3.5) vs. Cowboys SPORTS BETTING LINES
Lost in the Tony Romo lovefest is just how bad the Cowboys' defense was last week. I know they're banged up, but Dallas' 'D' allowed 438 yards to the Giants' offense, and backup running back Derrick Ward averaged 6.8 yards per carry. Meanwhile, Cam Cameron's decision to split carries between Ronnie Brown and Jesse Chatman sounds about as can't-miss as Larry David's plan to show up to Marty Funkhouser's party a night late. Still, gotta go with Miami to cover at home.
SEAHAWKS (-2.5) at Cardinals SPORTS BETTING LINES
I'm probably missing something, but this game seems too easy. Arizona blew Monday night's game against the 49ers in typical Cardinals fashion, and the Seahawks beat Tampa Bay by two touchdowns. Love Seattle in this one.
BRONCOS (-9.5) vs. Raiders SPORTS BETTING LINES
Special teams was a major story line in Week 1. Take a look at the Broncos. They had to rush on to the field to get a Jason Elam field goal as time expired against the Bills. Denver drove into Buffalo territory on eight of 10 drives but came away with just a pair of field goals and a touchdown. Look for more scoring from the Broncos this week against an Oakland defense that gave up 36 points to Detroit in Week 1.
BEARS (-12) vs. Chiefs SPORTS BETTING LINES
Everyone talks about Rex Grossman when dissecting the Bears' offense, but Chicago's quarterback got no help in last week's loss to the Chargers. Meanwhile, Kansas City confirmed what we all thought while watching Hard Knocks: The Chiefs are going to stink this year. It could be a rough first month for Larry Johnson fantasy owners. Kansas City's RB was limited to 43 yards on 10 carries in Week 1, and the Chiefs face the Bears, Vikings and Chargers the next three weeks, all formidable run defenses.
RAVENS (-10) vs. Jets SPORTS BETTING LINES
A big dose of Willis McGahee and a usual sound defensive effort will give the Ravens their first win. According to Football Outsiders, no team in the NFL rushed only three defenders on pass plays last year more than the Jets. And according to my special Jets correspondent Ben Stauber, New York did the same in Week 1. Whoever starts at quarterback for the Ravens should have all day to throw.
PATRIOTS (-3) vs. Chargers
Friends and I were discussing how Bill Belichick goes about paying his $500,000 fine for cheating. Does he just write one check to the NFL? Do you need some sort of clearance to make such a monstrous financial transaction? I guess I shouldn't complain about the security deposit I have to put down on my new apartment. Anyway, two of the league's best teams square off in what should be a good one Sunday night. The Patriots always respond well just when you think they're in trouble. And their offensive attack was the story in Week 1.
Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting.
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