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The College Football Czar: Week 8 Week seven in review: One of these weeks, the College Football Czar will wise up and start picking the Mississippi schools to win. In truth, he remains skeptical of Ole Miss, but there’s no question at this point that Mississippi State deserves its new #1 ranking. The Czar did not doubt the quality of the MSU team, but had instead overrated Auburn, which set out to prove that its near-upset at Kansas State was no fluke. For the week, the Czar only went 11-8, although he would protest the result of the Baylor-TCU game,...

The College Football Czar: Week 7 Week six in review: Eight ranked teams lost to lower-ranked or unranked opponents, including #2 Oregon, #3 Alabama and #4 Oklahoma. Top-ranked Florida State was among the few favorites that won handily, 43-3 over Wake Forest, in spite of another pedestrian performance from Heisman-winning QB Jameis Winston. Late collapses by Bama, Tennessee, Stanford and USC sent the College Football Czar crashing to a 10-10 mark, which drops his season record to 81-48, for a .628 winning percentage. The Czar did make a good pick on Mississippi State’s 48-31 toppling of Texas A&M (predicted score...

The College Football Czar: Week 6 Week five in review: By the time the early Saturday games were over, the College Football Czar was only 2-6, but he rallied during the mid-afternoon and night games to finish with a record of 14-8 for the week. He is now 71-38 overall, for a .651 winning percentage. The Czar came very close to predicting three scores in Week 5, including Clemson’s 50-35 shootout win over North Carolina (predicted score 51-35), Stanford’s 20-13 win over Washington (20-14), and Washington State’s 28-27 comeback against Utah (31-30). There were no real blockbuster games in Week...

The College Football Czar: Week 5 Week four in review: None of the presumptive national contenders played very well last week, although LSU was the only one to be upset. Top-ranked Florida State showed that its problems run a lot deeper than the QB position, while Oregon was exposed for a lack of depth on its OL. Alabama displayed lots of power but no discipline, Oklahoma couldn’t get going until halftime, and Auburn would have lost if not for a series of unforced K-State miscues. The College Football Czar is now waiting to see which overpaid studio show host will...

The College Football Czar: Week 4 Week three in review: Sixth-ranked Georgia was upset by South Carolina 38-35, but don’t count the Dogs out of national championship contention just yet. Aside from an early October trip to Missouri, there’s not that much standing in their way between now and their grudge match against Auburn on Nov. 15th. Heisman-winning Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston has already been nominated for the Lardhead of the Year Award, but if there were also a Banana-Brain of the Year and a Nougat-Noggin of the Year, he could easily challenge for the Triple Crown. Coach Jimbo...

The College Football Czar: Week 3 Week two in review: The Delta House defense has won, as the NCAA has ended the Penn State bowl ban after two seasons. So it’s official, then. A four-year postseason ban is too severe a punishment for knowingly allowing a child-rapist to operate on campus for a decade after his acts are made known to campus police. A good argument can be made that because all parties involved in the scandal have departed, it makes no sense to continue to punish those who are there today. In hindsight, the program really should have been...

"The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies," "Interstellar," "Mockingjay," more luring us to the big screen through the end of the year

The College Football Czar: Week 1 If you're reading the week one picks by the College Football Czar, that must mean that yet another long summer of terrible TV is about to come to a merciful end. So -- if you’ve found yourself taking a knee, not to mimic Tim Tebow, but to psych yourself up for the countless thrilling touchbacks that are in store this season; if you’ve become so football-starved that you’ve recorded Jerry Maguire and edited out all the crappy non-footbally parts, so that only the crappy parts having to do with football remain; if you inflicted...

<p>I haven't seen Mel Gibson's new film, "The Passion of the Christ," but I recently did see something worth raising a ruckus over: age- inappropriate trailers or previews -- what I call trailviews.</p> <p>I admit that I love trailviews. The more the better, I say. But lately, I have been bothered by them. I'm no prude, but do theaters really need to run trailviews for PG-13/Parents Strongly Advised or R-rated movies when the feature they are showing is G or PG?</p>

As America braces to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the worst ever attack on its soil, 11 states and the District of Columbia will hold nominating contests, including several of the highest profile intra-party battles of the cycle. Here's our preview. Turnout will be watched more closely than usual by the campaigns, the parties, elections officials, and the media. Not only will the make-up of the electorate prove especially key to deciding the outcome of certain statewide races in Florida and New Hampshire, among others, but everyone will be watching to see whether voters feel more inspired to turn out...