There's really nothing like the beginning of college football bowl season. In my opinion (and this may sound crazy to those reading) I think this is ten times better than March Madness. Sure you'll never get the feeling of a #15 knocking off a #2, but you're able to watch the teams that clawed their way to the finish line to get six wins and then come out and absolutely dominate in one final game.

Somehow I always get off to a great start picking games, and I think that's what keeps me most interested. A few years ago I went 10-0 to start before Boise killed my dreams, then the next year Boise came through by beating Oklahoma and I ended up winning the bowl pool.

This year I haven't watched as much football as I would have liked to because of the move, but I started the year off strong by going 4-0 yesterday. Don't worry, it's not like I have any crazy insider knowledge working at ESPN, it's just that teams from Utah can't compete with the sultry sounds of David Hasselhoff resonating through their heads the entire game.

We're Trojan fans tonight. Here's to 30 more bowls.

Just like last year, mom and dad got home late after visiting us for an out-of-state Christmas. Because of some plane malfunctions in Hartford that caused too long of a layover in Chicago, once again they didn't get home when they were supposed to.

But, like two years ago in Colorado, it was nice to have them out to celebrate a Christmas with us living outside of Nebraska. We had a good time touring ESPN, hanging out in West Hartford and taking my parents to New York City for the first time. I'm sure I have a few new albums to upload, so I'll see if I can get around to that sometime this weekend.

Since ESPN puts on the Jimmy V Classic, they were able to offer employees tickets to both games and a chartered bus to and from NYC for only $15. So how do you say no to that?

It was my first time at Madison Square Garden, and from all of the hype you always hear surrounding it, I thought it was going to be one of the best venues that I've ever been to. That was not the case. There's nothing like enjoying some basketball surrounded by green and purple throughout the stadium. It's not that the place was bad, but it just wasn't that grand.

To make up for it, Stephon Curry drained some key 3s in the final minutes and Texas showed why it will be dominate in the north this year.

Here's a sneak peak at the new ESPN.com. A few people in the digital media department did an excellent job over the past few months getting the beta live [http://beta.espn.go.com] for Insiders. The redesign implements larger (and quicker) videos, a cleaner navigation and a lighter code base for faster load times.

You can either become an Insider to start clicking around or wait a little bit until it's live to the public.