As the college football regular season nears the end, motivation is a big factor in handicapping games. Motivation is generally built into the line, but even still, it’s hard to put a value on how much a team’s mindset and effort level are worth. Just like late season NFL when the chase is on for the division title or the wild card, college teams are scrambling to reach the six-win plateau to guarantee bowl eligibility.

Keep in mind that bowl eligibility comes with a stipulation. They must be six wins over Division-1 FBS opponents. Wins over Division 1-AA (FCS) opponents do not count. Teams that end the season with six wins, including one over a FCS opponent, are required to submit a waiver exemption and leave it in the hands of a committee. Obviously, for coaches, boosters, trustees, and the school, getting to a bowl game is critically important. It gives the school needed exposure for recruits and transfers. Not to mention, for coaches, it is one of the most important ways to safeguard your employment.

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Both sides are back at the bargaining tables at an undisclosed location in New York City, but the prospects of a season continue to look bleak. Last week, the NHL canceled the annual Winter Classic outdoor hockey game and more cancellations for December could be on the horizon. After getting the league to budge on the issue of revenue sharing, the players’ association has now planted its flag in honoring existing contracts, leaving some in the media to believe that the only way the two sides come to a resolution is for the league to also make that concession.

Not much has changed over the last week regarding negotiations, except that both sides are talking again. The two sides met for over seven hours on Tuesday and were reportedly meeting again at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. That could be a small step in the right direction, but by no means does this mean that an agreement is imminent. As mentioned in previous columns, now that the players are playing overseas or in minor leagues, they’re more content than the owners and league officials who are sitting around doing very little. The onus remains on the league, along with the caveat that the players made the bulk of the concessions following the 2004-05 lockout.

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This week I had the opportunity to travel for work to a huge trade show in Las Vegas, all by myself.

Now Vegas for me is like kryptonite to Superman. I have a little of what is known as a “gambling problem,” so if you put me around the flashing neon lights without any sort of adult supervision, things have a tendency to get ugly. At the height of my sickness, I would be betting on Swedish hockey games during the day, because, well, nothing else was on during work hours, and, Swedish hockey! Modo was always my go-to team, but AIK and HV 71 were good bets too. And Friday nights were Ivy League basketball, which was always the most predictable betting night of the week and therefore my crack. You survive the week to thrive on Ivy Friday. I hit my only Heinz on Ivy night (which was a six-team group of parlays that involved 57 different betting combinations of teams parlayed together). I’d bet on anything that moved, and my financial outcome for the year was a predictable disaster. Bad decisions.

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All’s quiet on the lockout front as Hurricane Sandy shut down the NHL offices in New York City for a few days and no progress has been made between the league and the players’ association. The latest blurb on the lockout is that games through the end of November have been canceled and more cancellations could come once the league returns to business as usual as the hurricane heads back out to sea.

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