Monday, February 15, 2010

2010 Pittsburgh Sports Blog Tournament - Sweet 16

Before we begin the second round of the Best Pittsburgh Sports Blog Tournament, I want to touch on a few things from the first round.



1. Congratulations to SteelersDepot.com and Bucs Trade Winds for pulling off shocking upsets against #1 seeds Empty Netters and PSAMP respectively. It appears that both of these blogs deserved better than #8 seeds. In addition, congratulations to #7 seeds Igloo Dreams and Pittsburgh Lumber Co. for advancing to the Sweet 16. After last year’s tournament with few upsets and where all four #1 seeds made the Final Four, this year’s tournament is wide open (especially in the Moe Mantha division).

2a. I know that there have been some comments about why Black Shoe Diaries (BSD), a Penn State blog, is in the Pittsburgh sports blog tournament. Simply put, Penn State (particularly the football team) receives a significant amount of coverage by the Pittsburgh media. There are thousands of Penn State fans and alumni in Western Pennsylvania, so I thought they should be included. With that written, to the authors of BSD, please do me a favor and write a post about Steelers players that attended Penn State!

2b. I had no idea where to seed BSD, so I gave them a #4 seed. As it turned out, the match-up between BSD and BuccoFANS.com had the most votes for any match-up in the long and storied history of this tournament. Even though BuccoFANS.com has only been in existence for slightly more than a year, the blog has proven that it has a significant following and will be back strong next year.

3. It seems like fans of every sports team included in the tournament are united in their dislike of Bob Smizik. Personally, I don’t get it. Smizik knows the Pittsburgh sports community as well as anyone and this often comes across in his writing. I also think he writes posts just to get a reaction. Maybe I’m wrong, and I’m sure you will let me know this in the comments.

Here is the Sweet 16 bracket:



Voting for the Sweet 16 round begins now and ends on Wednesday, February 17 at 7:00 PM Eastern time. (This originally stated Tuesday, 2/16 @ 8:00 PM; due to the Presidents Day holiday, we're extending this round to Wednesday.) If you're new to the Pittsburgh Sports Blog Tournament, please click here to see the ground rules. In addition, while this may not be a realistic request, I ask that you please vote only once per matchup. Again, this is supposed to be fun.

Let the Sweet 16 Round begin!

LOUIS LIPPS DIVISION




1. Behind the Steel Curtain vs. 4. Black Shoe Diaries



3. One For The Other Thumb vs. 7. Igloo Dreams



CRAIG "IRONHEAD" HEYWARD DIVISION



5. Raise the Jolly Roger vs. 8. Bucs Trade Winds



2. PensBurgh vs. 3. Bucs Dugout



DOUG FROBEL DIVISION



1. Mondesi's House vs. 4. DC Steeler Nation



2. Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke vs. 6. The Hunky & The Mick (The Suburban Rob Rossis)





MOE MANTHA DIVISION



4. Faceoff Factor vs. 8. SteelersDepot.com



3. Blog 'N' Gold vs. 7. Pittsburgh Lumber Co.



Good luck to all of these blogs, and thank you for voting and for visiting these sites!

In addition, thanks to Cotter for designing the fantastic logo.

Finally, feel free to follow me and the Pittsburgh Sports Blog Tournament on Twitter.

Voting for the Sweet 16 round is now closed. The Elite 8 round begins on Thursday, 2/18. Thanks for voting!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome back for the Sweet 16 presented by the worst blog known to man

McClutchen22 said...

Hey, I don't think BTW is playing fair. After looking at their vote map from the first round, and their vote map right now, things don't add up. I may be wrong but...

Dave said...

McClutchen22, If I knew how to rig this, I would have won last year. :D

To tell you the truth, I was shocked that I won the 1st round. I had my concession speech written and ready for post. Luckily I can just change PSAMP to RTJR for round 2.

I will continue to pimp for votes, but it isn't looking good.