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Thursday thoughts (or a reasonable facsimile thereof): Not that it is recent news or anything, but the best college football team in Illinois is Northern Illinois. Of course, a Northwestern victory Saturday at home against Michigan would be big, but it still wouldn’t moved the Wildcats past NIU to the top spot. And, of course, a loss to Michigan would move the Wildcats closer to the University of Illinois.
The annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show will be on CBS on Dec. 10.
* Speaking of NIU, there’s nothing quite like Wednesday night football (in this case, NIU beating Ball State 48-27) to make you realize — if you hadn’t already — that the tern “student-athletes” is more oxymoronic than anything else.
* Speaking of the Illini, who would have guessed the basketball team would have as many victories after three games as the football team has after nine games? OK, other than a lot of people.
* All those folks in the Chicago Cubs radio audience who were hoping Mark DeRosa would replace Keith Moreland as analyst to play-by-play broadcaster Pat Hughes, there is mixed news. He will be part of the electronic media. But he will be on television. And the outlet with be the Major League Network and not any specifically affiliated with the Cubs.
* Speaking of the Cubs broadcasting vacancy, former pitchers Dave Otto and Kerry Wood reportedly are the two candidates with the best chance to take the place of Moreland, who opted to depart. Of course, the job description should come with some sort of warning, such as: Watching the Cubs on a daily basis can be dangerous to your health (quite possibly more mental than physical).
* Speaking of health, Bulls guard Derrick Rose did not practice Wednesday. He may miss Friday’s game in Toronto. Coach Tom Thibodeau did not say for sure the former Most Valuable Player would. Of course, with the Bulls playing a home game Saturday against undefeated Indiana, common sense says Rose — who is coming off anterior-cruciate ligmanet surgery — should bypass the Raptors contest and see what he can do — provided that his hamstring injury is not a pain — against the Pacers.
Guess what time it is? Time to vote for “Sports & Torts” in the Podcastawards.com contest. “Sports & Torts” is among 10 finalists for best sports podcast. The weekly interview show – co-hosted by David Spada and Elliott Harris — airs on Thursdays at noon Central time on Talkzone.com. Voting ends Nov. 15. On the bright side, voting is reasonably quick and painless. The guest on the Nov. 14 show is Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive lineman Willie Roaf.
To vote, go to podcastawards.com. After you vote, you will receive an email to verify your vote. Your vote will not count unless you respond to the email. If you don’t see the voting verification email, check out your spam or junk email folder (that’s where mine continue to go — yes, I am taking that personally).
Thank you in advance for your vote or votes. As with any election involving anything Chicago-related, you are encouraged to vote early and often. The main difference between this and an actual Chicago election is multiple votes from a person (presumably still living) is permitted for the Podcast Awards. You are allowed to vote once a day. To vote, click here. Among our competition are sites from ESPN and CBS, so we need to battle the behemoths. We feel good about doing so — especially with your assistance. Stay tuned. And thank you once again.
Here is where to go for a daily dose of non-gratuitous video (thanks to the edifying effort of the editorial and video departments at elliottharris.com):
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