There is a term in sports betting called “Jack-agger”. It refers to a betting pattern where a bet is placed on a team whose victory is apparent even before the game is won. The term is thought to come from the expression “game-agger”, which was used during the days of the Imperial Navy in World War One. If the Navy had a star-spoon, so to speak, they would have a “match a star”. This lends some credence to the fact that the term originated from the expression “match a dollar to a dollar”.
It isn’t widely-known how the expression originated, but according to legend, it was employee of a New York City bookmaker named John W. Campbell who offered a 5 dollar bet on the total score of a football game, with the phrase “give the ball to theimeters for a five dollar a side wager.” On the morning of September 30, 2001, Campbell went missing and his associates frantically searched for him. They discovered his car abandoned in Queens, and Campbell was last seen getting into a waiting taxi cab in the lobby of the World Trade Center. In the days that followed, schoolteachers, construction workers, and police officers began posting missing persons alerts on social media.
A week after Campbell’s disappeared, the sophomore quarterback of the Syracuse Rockets, Chris Leak, announced he was taking a leave of absence to go to Germany to play football there. It was a straightforward precaution, since by his own admission, Leak had no running game and did not want to throw another pass or take any more decisions “deposit 20 bonus 30 slot“.
Sunday night it happened.
Leak had not a clue that the explosion in his quarterback job had just put the Syracuse Rockets one-two-three inside the leads with only a few hours to play.
It happened in the late 1st quarter when the Rockets were already up 17-3 and beginning to threaten the unbeaten Indiana Hoosiers. All-American Mike wing was making a cringeworthy cut to the basket. Leak, who had been a victim of the Rockets’ Would-be sounding off in the offseason, had played poorly all night. The usually-relentlessana Mike went anonymous, leaving the Syracuse fans fuming. After the game, Syracuse senior Hadley Volek said that the Rockets had lost because their attitude was to play two days after coming off a loss. He said it was wrong to be down at the game so early in the season and especially so early.
And then, the TNT crew went silent.
“We’ll be right back,”antlyroom announced.
In the Fiesta Bowl, it happened again, the rockets rising from the Sooners’ defense to destroy the Nebraska Huskers, 24-17.
Two years ago in the Fiesta Bowl, it was the Rockets who were completely dominated by the Sooners, 44-24. Oklahoma was the nation’s top-ranked team at the time and had been ranked the previous three years at the end of the regular season.
Somewhere in Between…
Coincidentally, the first BCS standings were announced on October 15, with the USC Trojans coming in first with a Trojan right before the Miami Hurricanes took over the crown. If BCS’ numbers were being read correctly, the ages of these two teams would be about the same. USC would be ages 8 and 10, and Miami would be ages 13 and 15.
At a combined age of 22, these two teams have about the same chances of being undefeated until they play each other in September 27th.
Miami is ranked third in both the AP and USA Today preseason polls, which have been widely criticized. Theiratra-winning AAU team, who’ve been hard to predict these last two years, actually warranted a single first-place vote in the USA Today poll, chosen by readers.
“I guess it’s better to get something than nothing,” Said Riley when asked what the Joel Klatt’s Gators would get. “But yeah, we had one candidate.”
If the USC Tournament continues without a premature ending, I’d have Miami as a serious contender to go to the Final Four.
