Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
03/20/2007 - Bristol, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Current Nextel Cup Series points leader Mark Martin is keeping to his preseason racing schedule that has him sitting out the Food City 500 this Sunday.
Despite posting four consecutive top-10s in the first four races of the season, Martin's name is not on the preliminary entry list for this week's event. The 48-year-old, in his first year with Ginn Racing, said before the season that he only wanted to run a part-time schedule and the team agreed to put rookie Regan Smith in the No.01 Army Chevrolet for a number of races.
But Martin has gotten off to a spectacular start, almost winning the Daytona 500, then posting a pair of top-5 finishes before last week's 10th-place result at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
There has been much speculation that Martin would not skip the race in Bristol and the team said they would be happy to put Smith in another car if Martin wanted to race.
Martin, one of the best drivers in NASCAR history never to have won a series championship (he has finished as the runner-up four times), drove for Roush Racing for 19 years before jumping to a new team this season.
"I feel good, man, and I am looking forward to next weekend," Martin said after Sunday's race in Atlanta. "People might not believe it, but they'll have a hard time finding me.
"This thing has really been encompassing. We've worked hard since January and put a lot into this. It's been a hard-working stretch, and I'm really looking to taking a little break. There are mixed emotions, but the bottom line is that I'm gonna take a break.
Martin will end a streak of 621 consecutive starts.
<< Marquee match-up set for Thursday night in the AFL
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - AFL nationally televised action begins early
this week when the Colorado Crush travel to Philadelphia to take on the Soul
on Thursday, March 22 at 7 p.m. ET at the Wachovia Center on ESPN2. ESPN's
renowned multim
<< Arena Football Preview - Week Four
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Here are this week's Arena Football League
match-ups for Week Four.
THURSDAY, MARCH 22
COLORADO CRUSH (2-1) AT PHILADELPHIA SOUL (2-0), 7:00 P.M. ET
FIRST meeting between teams when one is undefeated...CR
<< Rockets try to extend winning streak versus Indiana
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Rockets try to extend their winning streak to
four games when they welcome the Indiana Pacers tonight to the Toyota Center.
Houston is No. 5 in the Western Conference playoff race, seven games ahead of
the sixt
<< Norfolk first to clinch playoff berth
Springfield, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With four weeks remaining in the 2006-07
regular season, the Norfolk Admirals have become the first team to clinch a
berth in the 2007 Calder Cup Playoffs.
For the Admirals, it is their seventh consecutive
Clippers continue road trip in the Windy City >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Clippers play the fifth of a six-game road
trip when they visit the Chicago Bulls tonight at the United Center.
The Clippers are one game behind the Golden State Warriors for the eighth and
final playoff be
Chiefs sign DT Boone to four-year deal >>
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Kansas City Chiefs agreed to terms on
a four-year contract with defensive tackle Alfonso Boone.
Boone had 35 tackles and two sacks in 12 games -- including four starts --last
season for the NFC Champi
Boise State's Karl to undergo surgery for cancer >>
Boise, ID (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Boise State guard and son of Denver Nuggets head
coach George Karl, Coby, will undergo surgery on April 2 to remove cancerous
lymph nodes.
This past January, the cancerous lymph nodes were found, but Karl el
Yao, McGrady make the Rockets a serious contender >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Don't forget about Houston. The Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix
Suns and San Antonio Spurs are the talk of the Western Conference, but All-
Stars Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady are healthy and that makes the Rockets a very
dangerous
Kurt Warner to start, Matt Leinart to watch
Despite the debate that's swirling , Kurt Warner will remain the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, coach Dennis Green said today. The Arizona Cardinals are the +7 point underdog at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com for this Sunday's game.
Green's comment came in a statement released by the team following an ESPN report that Green decided that rookie Matt Leinart would replace Warner as starter for Sunday's game at Atlanta.
"Generally talking about the starting lineup is not something we do," Green told the AP. "However, given the speculation that was out there we want to make it clear. We're disappointed after last week, but we still expect to be a playoff football team and we fully expect Kurt Warner to be the quarterback that leads us. That has not changed."
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs.
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
To visit this sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting