#Team of Destiny

Rodney Dangerfield would love these TCU Horned Frogs. It's hard to remember the last time a team got so little respect as these Big 12 champs, who entered the college football championship game against Georgia as massive underdogs. The Bulldogs enter as 13-point favorites, a whopping spread for a contest between the two best teams in college…

The NFL Playoffs will kick off this weekend, and the Chiefs will enter as the favorite to win the 2023 Super Bowl, according to most sportsbooks. Bettors in Ohio can still take advantage of our great signup offers. OH only. 21+. New users and first wager only. Must register with an eligible promo code. Bet amount of qualifying wager returned only…

The TCU Horned Frogs have spent the last four months piling up victories, silencing naysayers and making their believers a whole lot of money. Now, the team that was picked to finish seventh in its 10-team conference - the team led by a starting quarterback who wasn't the starter when the season kicked off - is on the precipice of making college…

The Horned Frogs (13-1) upset No. 3 Michigan 51-45 in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year's Eve to become the first Big 12 team to make the College Football Playoff Championship game. They already were the first team from Texas to make the playoff. Their remarkable run concludes against No. 1 Georgia on Monday in Inglewood, California (7:30 p.m.,…

The Boston Bruins are far and away the best team in hockey. They're 30-4-4, the favorite to win the Stanley Cup at+500 according to BetOnline.ag, and also have the favorite to win the NHL's Coach of the Year award behind their bench. The Jack Adams Trophy is given to the league's best head coach in a given season, and Jim Montgomery is the current…

It's time to ring in the New Year, and that always makes for a perfect prediction window. Roundtable members: Offer your wildest hockey prediction for the calendar year 2023. The spicier the take, the better. MATT LARKIN: Here goes nothin': Patrick Kane wins the Stanley Cup. With the situation getting uglier by the day in Chicago, I predict he…

PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. - Why, you ask, is the picture for this article a rhinoceros? This morning, at the Phoenix Zoo, Chutti the rhino made his prediction for Saturday's Fiesta Bowl showdown between No. 2 seed Michigan and No. 3 seed TCU. In an electric display of decision-making only a rhino is capable of, Chutti emphatically chose the…

Sometimes, it's better not to overthink things. The College Football Playoff Selection Committee got it right earlier this month. No ifs, ands or but-we-would-have-been-favored-over-everybodies about it. Talking to you, Mr. Saban. The 2022-23 College Football Playoff is the first to be played without either Alabama or Clemson. TCU went from…

The Philadelphia Phillies (9-2, 4-2 away) have been very good en route to their first World Series appearance in more than a decade. However, in getting back to the Fall Classic for the second time in as many years, the Houston Astros (7-0, 4-0 home) are the picture of perfection. Playing in the World Series for the fourth time over the past six…

The Big Ten is one of the two best conferences in college hockey this season, with only the Hockey East challenging them for college superiority. Currently, the Big Ten has three teams ranked in the top 10 (No. 2 Minnesota, No. 5 Penn State, No. 7 Michigan), and six teams ranked in the top 20 (No. 11 Michigan State, No. 14 Ohio State, No. 19 Notre…

TCU has already secured a spot in the Big 12 Championship game. TCU is the first Big 12 school to start 11-0 since Texas started 13-0 in 2009. The Big 12 has not had a team finish undefeated in conference play since Oklahoma in 2016. TCU has five wins this season over ranked teams, which equals the combined total of the other undefeated teams…

The New York Rangers almost feel like a team of destiny. They've overcome huge deficits all season, showing a resilience and fortitude common among Stanley Cup Champions. Despite blowing a late lead in Game 3 against the Lightning, the Rangers still control their destiny as they lead Tampa Bay 2-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals. Game 4 is…

Sometimes, it's better not to overthink things. The College Football Playoff Selection Committee got it right. No ifs, ands or but-we-would-have-been-favored-over-everybodies about it. Talking to you, Mr. Saban. Now, onto the actual deserving Football Four: This is the first College Football Playoff without either Alabama or Clemson. TCU went from…

Championship week is here! Our Hawkeyes blew a chance at the title game, losing to a horrible, rotten, no-good Nebraska team. It was so disgusting that the Spread Awareness staff agreed to not even put out an article this week until we realized something…. Last week we caught FIRE. After struggling for weeks, we had our winningest week of the…

Meet the new boss, same as the … ah, the heck with it. Alabama enters the latest College Football Playoff as the No. 1 seed the fifth time. When the 2021 Cotton Bowl kicks off Friday afternoon, it will be on the field for a CFP semifinal for the seventh time in the event's eight-year existence. Look and sound familiar? It should. The Crimson Tide,…

World Cup action continues on Wednesday after Tuesday began with a stunning upset as Saudi Arabia beat potential favorite Argentina 2-1. Wednesday will see two more perennial powerhouses in action in Germany and Spain, with both obviously hoping to avoid the fate that befell Lionel Messi and Argentina. We have the full schedule for the day, as well…

Amid a 2022 season stacked with surprising surges and atypical falls, the college football landscape is calm. For a moment, all is quiet on the College Football Playoff front. The most recent rankings included zero changes to the Top Five of Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, TCU and Tennessee. But will that remain true after Week 12? If anything does,…

Just like everyone predicted, it's Phillies vs. Padres in the National League Championship Series. Things kick off Tuesday night in San Diego at 8:03 p.m. ET on FS1. Check out our picks below (nearly 30 of our writers and editors voted) and share yours in the comments. Keith Law (Pick: Phillies): Phillies seem to have the edge in starting pitching…

It's rapidly approaching and it's widely considered to be the premier matchup of the college football postseason: No. 2 Michigan vs. No. 3 Georgia in the Capital One Orange Bowl on New Year's Eve at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. The winner, of course, takes on the winner of Alabama and Cincinnati for all the marbles. Georgia was certainly expected to…

The big story coming out of Game 3 is that Lance McCullers Jr. was tipping his pitches and Bryce Harper and the Phillies took full advantage by ripping five home runs off of the Astros starter to take a 2-1 series lead. The second-biggest story is how Dusty Baker could possibly leave McCullers out there to get his brains beaten in and not even give…

HOUSTON - The MLB postseason's two hottest teams fittingly find themselves in the World Series. The undefeated Houston Astros possess plenty of experience, while the Philadelphia Phillies have had everything go their way as the Cinderella story of October. Both teams hope to win it all. But what will it take? Offense has been the driving force of…

As I sat down to write today's newsletter, I couldn't help but think of the title of an episode of The West Wing, "On the Day Before." Today, of course, is the day before the World Series, so I naturally wanted to make "On the Day Before" the title and subject line of this newsletter. The idea was also to find a thread to tie together the plot of…

When we made our World Series picks entering the postseason, the Astros were the favorites in the American League, with five of our seven writers taking them to win the pennant. It's true that only one of us (Emma Baccellieri) tabbed Houston to win the World Series, but that was more due to the strength of the top two National League teams,…

Who will win the World Series between the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies? The Astros are favored to win the Fall Classic over the Phillies, according to Tipico Sportsbook, which has Houston at -190 and Philadelphia at+162 to be the World Series champion. Some MLB writers detail why they think the Astros will win the series in their MLB…

Welcometo a special edition of an Inside the Astros roundtable where we discuss the upcoming World Series between the Houston Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies! The best-of-seven series will begin on Friday, Oct. 28 at Minute Maid Park at 7:03 p.m. CDT. The writers at Inside the Astros and Inside the Phillies got together to talk about each…

Well, we believe in exit velocity, bat flips, launch angles, stealing home, the hanging curveball, Big League Chew, sausage races, and that unwritten rules of any kind are self-indulgent, overrated crap. We believe Greg Maddux was an actual wizard. We believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment protecting minor league baseball and that…

The Houston Astros are heavy favorites to win the World Series, but the odds are shifting in the Philadelphia Phillies' direction. The Astros opened at -200 while the Phillies were listed at+175. However, Houston is now at -186 and Philadelphia is at+160. The best-of-seven series begins Friday night at Minute Maid Park in Houston. Odds as of…

Even most of three decades on, Kelly Hrudey will tell you he takes no pleasure in recalling the details of the 1993 Stanley Cup final. You can understand why. In his 15 seasons as an NHL goaltender, Hrudey would never come closer to hoisting hockey's most cherished trophy than he did that year as a member of the Los Angeles Kings. And for a…

One of the recurring themes on the Cuppa Cubbie Blue podcast this season has been the emergence of super-teams in MLB. There are a handful of teams that spend money, extend talented players and seem to have no end of talent in their farm systems. The rest of the league just has to scrap and hope they catch those super teams on a bad day to have a…

Even most of three decades on, Kelly Hrudey will tell you he takes no pleasure in recalling the details of the 1993 Stanley Cup final. You can understand why. In his 15 seasons as an NHL goaltender, Hrudey would never come closer to hoisting hockey's most cherished trophy than he did that year as a member of the Los Angeles Kings. And for a…

Betting analysis of the MLB American League Division Series between the five-seed Mariners and one-seed Astros. Game 1 of the American League Division Series kicks off Tuesday as the Houston Astros host the Seattle Mariners at Minute Maid Park in Houston. Here are SI Sportsbook's odds for the ALDS: Mariners (+180) | Astros (-250) These two teams…

The first year of Major League Baseball introducing three wild card teams has been a success, if you're looking for upsets and crazy games. Not only did we see a 15-inning matchup between the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Guardians, but we saw three lower seeds advance to the ALDS or NLDS over the weekend. The Seattle Mariners, Philadelphia Phillies…

MLB's wild-card round has concluded, and the best-of-five division series are set to begin on Tuesday. The expanded playoff field has given us chaos in the National League, as both the Mets and Cardinals were eliminated at home over the weekend. That leaves us two scrawny underdogs going up against a pair of 100-plus win behemoths. Here are our MLB…

The MLB wild-card series are coming to an end, and on Tuesday the division series will kick off. The expanded playoffs field has been whittled down, and we have our division series matchups on the American League side. The two division winners are likely to meet in the ALCS, but MLB's playoffs are well-known for producing upsets. Here are our MLB…

About The Show: A.J. Reilly: Playoff MLB is here. It starts tomorrow night with the wild card series. Remember, there are three wild card teams now this season. Two of them, the bottom two wild cards or the top two wild cards, will play each other. And the final wild card spot will travel to the third seed in the respective division. So let's look…

Sure, the Dodgers look like one of the best baseball teams ever assembled, the Braves are surging and look poised to repeat, even the Astros are back to their dominant form in the American League, but sometimes we get so caught up in the favorites that we miss out on some value further down the board. Let's take a look at three of the best…

Why They'll Win The World Series Because destiny. Do you really need another reason? The Mariners have been counted out for the last 20 years. They certainly weren't expected to overtake the Angels as AL West darlings this year. They weren't expected to do much of, well, anything. And here they are, with superstar rookie Julio Rodríguez and a…

Each week Jays From the Couch takes in the beauty of the MLB landscape and tries to imagine how Blue Jays Fans might see things. This week: let's talk about the MLB rules changes to be implemented in 2023-and the one that Blue Jays fans hope will not be a missed call. JFtC will also take a peek at potential rotations to be utilized during the Wild…

Rookie Adrian Martinez (3-3, 5.28) is scheduled to start for the Athletics against Spenser Watkins (4-5, 4.26). Martinez will be pitching on six days of rest and Watkins on four. Martinez is coming off a strong outing in which he beat the New York Yankees last Sunday in Oakland. He limited the AL East leaders to one run and three hits in 5.1…