Whatever Wednesday: NCAA Preview

Welcome to my NCAA mini-preview! This will be how the Friday post will look starting September 9th. and ending with the Men's National Championship Game in April. Each week, I will list out my top-15, my Heisman front runner, and my story of the week. At the end of the year it will be fun to see what I got right, and what you will ridicule me for getting wrong.

Let's begin:

Top 15

1. Oklahoma -- Easily the class of the nation, but tough conference play may derail BCS dream.
2. Oregon -- Ducks' offense should give them a shot, but a November meeting with Stanford looms.
3. Alabama -- 'Bama's defense is better than some NFL teams, but the iffy offense could stop them.
4. Boise State -- Boise should go unbeaten, but may not rise above this ranking.
5. Stanford -- My dark horse for the National Title.
6. LSU -- Never count out the Tigers, but the always tough SEC is a blessing and a curse.
7. Wisconsin -- Class of the Big Ten. Much better than overrated Nebraska.
8. Oklahoma State -- Could be surprise Big 12 champ, upset special over the Sooners.
9. Florida State -- I don't like the Seminoles this year, but they're talented enough to win ACC.
10. Texas A&M -- Tough-as-nails as Aggies will give the Cowboys and Sooners close games.
11. TCU -- My dream would be a Boise-TCU BCS title game, but Boise's move to MWC ends that.
12. South Carolina -- The old ball coach will have them ready to play. Could be a land mine team.
13. Arkansas --Ditto with the Razorbacks. Wouldn't put the SEC title game past them.
14. Virginia Tech -- Tech is always exciting on paper, but blah on the field. Should win ACC.
15. Georgia -- Tough opener against Boise, but good showing will put the Dawgs back on the map.

Heisman winner: Andrew Luck, Stanford -- Way to go out on a limb, huh.

Surprise team: Penn State -- Talented D will put Lions in the inaugural Big Ten title game.

Game of the Year: Penn State vs. Wisconsin. PSU pulls out 3-point victory to clinch Big Ten title game birth.

Whatever Wednesday: Youtube, Twins, and SYTYCD

Welcome to Whatever Wednesday! This day will be dedicated to small pondering, and extensions of other post. Whether it's a theory, or a need to explain a point, I will use Wednesday to clarify it. Also, this will be the day I give predictions for American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, and in the fall, X-Factor. Wednesday will be a little more free form than the rest of the week.

So let's begin...

Youtube is great invention. It is the greatest blank canvas on the internet. You can search for nutshots, or cute cat videos, or old clips of TV from your childhood, and be enthralled for hours. It's also gave birth to the Rick Roll, and was a key cog in the Egyptian Revolution. Youtube can be anything, but the one aspect of the website that draws me in is people singing cover songs. It doesn't matter if it's good or bad, I will watch it. But just like anything else on Youtube, it has a very practical application.

Singers like Tiffany Alvord, Christina Grimmie, and Greyson Chance, and bands like Boyce Avenue have all used the site to upload their versions of popular songs, and created a fan base large enough that they can go out on tour and record albums. And they all built their popularity through sheer will and self confidence without the backing of a studio, which is the complete opposite of "singers" like Rebecca Black and whatever other auto-tuned teen that Arc Music Factory produces.

Obviously, unsigned bands posting their music on the internet is nothing new, but there's something different about watching the person sing the song that makes you feel more connected to the artist. I have listened to each artist listed above multiple times, and find myself gravitating to their covers (most notably, Alvord's acoustic work) when I have down time at work, which was something I never did with the former social network mecca for music, Myspace.

Of course, their success leads to a host of untalented teenagers posting videos of themselves singing whatever their favorite song is that day. In most cases, when a subject is over saturated with mediocre to terrible content, it drowns out the actual talent.

Surprisingly, the opposite is true in this case, and those terrible covers just highlight how good singers like Alvord are. So maybe Justin Bieber's story is not one in a million, but more of a guideline on how to get noticed on your own in the internet age.

If you have not, I suggest checking out each singer and/or band that I have listed above (Alvord and Boyce Avenue's "Jar of Hearts" cover for starters), and have fun clicking on all the similar links Youtube gives. Who knows, you may be watching the next Bieber, or the next William Hung, but one thing is for sure, you'll enjoy it.

Thought of the day: Do guys that fantasize about threesomes with twins, realize it's actually incest?

SYTYCD Prediction: First off, Melanie should win, and I think she will. The surprise tomorrow night will be that Sasha will finish third. Also, look for my review and thoughts on the series as a whole on TV Thursday.

My order of finish: Melanie, Marko, Sasha, Tadd. What's yours?