Well folks, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for...

No I’m not talk about the new season of Kourtney and Kim Take Miami (although admittedly I know some of you actually have been waiting for that moment... although that’s another story for another day).  

Nope, I’m talking about the Aaron Torres Sports Bracket Challenge!

That’s right the ATS Bracket Challenge is back for the fourth straight year, and with it, you once again have the opportunity to have some fun picking this year’s college basketball National Champion.  In the process you can also win some great prizes along the way (including books, gift cards and more), and maybe even better, you get the chance to compete against me, and prove to the world just how little I actually know about sports!  

Good times! Well, until I finish in last place in my own pool, that is.

Anyway, enough of the small talk and let’s get to the details!

First off, you can go ahead and get signed up for the pool by clicking here.

Before we begin, the most important note is that as always, the challenge is completely, 100 percent free. There is no sign-up fee, no money down, and unlike years past I won’t even require a blood sample or retinal scan to enter either (You know, because we’re friends like that) So basically by signing up, you've got nothing to lose. Well except for you dignity of course. Which we both know went out the window long ago.

As for the pool itself, it will be run like any other pool you’ve ever entered: You’ll be rewarded points for each game you pick correctly, with more points being rewarded the deeper we get into the tournament. The most points at the end of the tournament wins the pool. It’s really that simple.

A few notes: When you do fill out your bracket, please make sure and select a final point total for this year’s championship game. That will serve as a tiebreaker, so it is imperative that you fill that out. Also please note that all submissions have to be in by Thursday at noon EST before the first games. Got that?

Now, let’s get to the good stuff…. Yup, that’s right, the prizes, which I think you’ll enjoy.

This year those prizes include a $50 Amazon.com gift card, a $20 Amazon.com gift card, and copies of Jay Bilas’ new book “Toughness” as well as multiple copies of the Bobby Knight’s new book “The Power of Negative Thinking,” which I’ve actually already read and is pretty darn good (even if “The Power of Negative Thinking” might be the most Bobby Knight title to any book anyone could ever imagine).

Anyway, here is how the prize structure will work, with prizes being awarded at virtually every stop of the tournament.

1) Person with the most total points after Round 1 of the NCAA Tournament gets a copy of Bobby Knight’s new book “The Power of Negative Thinking.”
2) Person with the most points after the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament (aka heading into the Final Four) gets a copy of Bobby Knight’s new book “The Power of Negative Thinking.”
3) Person who finishes with the third most total points at the end of the tournament wins a copy of Jay Bilas’ new book “Toughness.”
4) Person who finishes with the second most total points at the end of the tournament wins a $20 Amazon.com gift card
5) Person who finishes with the most total points at the end of the tournament wins a $50 Amazon.com gift card.

Oh, and because I’m awesome, I’d like to add this: Whoever I determine to have the best “team name” in the bracket will also receive a free copy of Bobby Knight’s “The Power of Negative Thinking.” So have fun when picking your name...just go ahead and make sure it's a name your mom would approve of, ok?

All in all, that doesn’t sound like a terrible deal to me, huh?

So with that, go ahead and click here to sign-up.

As always, if you’ve got any questions, you’re welcome to reach out by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , in the comments section below or on Twitter @Aaron_Torres. Feel free to drop me a line there, and I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can.

Anyway, I want to thank you all again for signing up for the Aaron Torres Sports NCAA Tournament Bracket Challenge, and I look forward to having fun and competing against you all March long.

Oh, and one more thing: Don’t make me look too bad this month? Ok?
 

For those of you who've grown accustomed to bi-weekly podcasts and the occasionally intelligent well-written article (kidding... I hope) here at Aaron Torres Sports, I've got some bad news: I'm going to be mostly off the grid for the next week or so.

However, my favorite week of the sports calendar is next week, meaning that I will have plenty of quality content in the form of "Championship Week" coverage. Podcasts, articles, live blogs... you name it, I'll be doing it. And that will of course be followed by NCAA Tournament coverage (not to mention the fourth annual Aaron Torres Sports NCAA Tournament pool!), spring football stuff and much more.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is to stay tight and stick around here at ATS.

It'll be worth your time. I can promise you that.

Folks, before you start this article, please go ahead and grab a seat. I’ve got something to tell you and I’m not totally sure how you’re going to take it:

Ready? Ok, here goes: We... (//holding back tears//)...are about to enter our first Saturday in five months ...(//sniffling//)...without college football.

Yeah, I know, I’m hurting too. But we can work through this. I just know we can.

No, it won’t be easy. The idea that we won’t have any college football in our lives these next few months is a tough pill to swallow. There will be no more Johnny Football. No more of Les Miles’ hat or Charlie Strong’s hoodless sweatshirt. No more of Will Muschamp uncomfortably screaming at a third-string long snapper for no apparent reason. And I can’t lie, so far I haven’t taken it too well. Along with the death of my goldfish “Chip” (No, I swear, there was no particular reason I named him that), this is undoubtedly the toughest thing I’ve had to deal with so far in 2013.

At the same time, I will not let it keep me down. Yes, college football season may be over, but dammit, that doesn’t mean my life has to be! And without the sport consuming 18 hours of my day, every Saturday I’m free to live a little bit. Frankly, there are a number of things I’ve wanted to do over these past couple months that I simply haven’t had the chance to.

Well thankfully, now I do have that time, which is why late last night I decided to grab a pen and paper and make a list. A list of 50 Things I Plan on Doing Now That College Football Season is Over. I did it last year, and I will probably do it again next year too. They say the best way to overcome a traumatic event is to make a goofy list of ways you plan on passing the time (ok, so maybe nobody says that) and that’s what I plan on doing today.

Here is my list of 50 Things. And as always, you’re more than welcome to share a list of your own.

Continue Reading

As you might’ve guessed by looking around the site, it’s been a little bit of a slow couple weeks here at Aaron Torres Sports. The holidays have come, I’ve been traveling quite a bit, and well, when you eat as much as I have, your fingers get fat and it makes it pretty hard to type. Ok, so that last one hasn’t happened (yet), but the other two definitely have. Regardless, I do hope that you’re enjoying some holiday food and family time as well.

Of course while things have been slow around here, when the good folks over at ESPNU’s UNITE e-mailed and asked me to join the show on Wednesday night, well it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

Now granted, this wasn’t my first rodeo at the UNITE corral. I have been on the show twice before, when I discussed Week 2 of the college football season early in September and later I returned to debate on behalf of USC (and Lane Kiffin) prior to their matchup with Oregon. Well this time I was tasked with defending Clemson (a heavy underdog in the Online Sportsbooks), as they get set to play LSU in this year’s Chick Fil-A Bowl. The best part? I went head-to-head in the debate with my good friend Barrett Sallee of BleacherReport.com, who has been on my podcast many times and is as in tune with what's going on in the SEC as anyone I know.

And once the debate did start, Barrett and I got into it pretty hot and heavy. We discussed ACC Player of the Year Tajh Boyd, the value of LSU’s Zach Mettenberger and the importance of Eric Reid. Of course when push came to shove and we had to settle the debate with a tiebreak... well I choked worse than the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl. If anything, I actually “Clemson-ed” myself.

Overall though it was a fun debate and I advise you to check out the video above at Kentucky Derby betting sites.

I appreciate the folks at UNITE having me on, and I hope to do it again soon!

Hello and good morning! I just wanted to make a quick announcement on this lovely Friday morning and let you know that my new eBook, Aaron Torres Presents the Year in Sports 2012 is now available on Amazon!!

Now for those of you who aren’t familiar with the eBook, well, I made the announcement a few weeks ago, but either way, essentially what you need to know is this: The eBook is the definitive take on sports in the year 2012. It’s over 40 of my best articles and 200 pages of my absolute best work from the calendar year. I guess what I’m trying to tell you is that if you like my work, and if you like sports (which I’m pretty sure go hand-in-hand at this point) then you’re going to love this book. You should be able to read the book on just about any eReader, including an iPad, Kindle, iPhone or any other smart phone.

So what’s in the book?

Well, if it happened in 2012 you can pretty much name it and it’s in there. There’s my article on Alabama’s National Championship. And quite a bit on Kentucky basketball; on everything from my visit to the state last winter, straight through their run to the 2012 college hoops title as well. There are articles on LeBron, Bryce Harper and Jim Calhoun’s retirement, as well as my argument for why Anthony Davis needed to be added to the Olympic team. You know, before he actually was added to the Olympic team. Not to mention my argument for the Most Annoying Fans in Sports and a tribute to my dog Oscar.  

The book also includes some of my most recent articles too. It includes articles on why the James Harden trade wouldn’t be a home run for the Houston Rockets (which it wasn’t). On Texas A&M emerging as college football’s next super-power (which it is). And on the evolution of Brian Kelly and why Notre Dame was playing in the 2013 BCS title game because of it.

I’m not saying that I covered every single thing that happened in the 2012 sports year... But I came pretty darn close.

Anyway, as I mentioned at the top, the book is now available for purchase on Amazon (I’m working to get it on iTunes and Nook too), and it makes a great gift not only for yourself, but also for any loved ones who enjoy sports too. Honestly, if you’re looking to do something nice for your buddy Aaron this holiday season, the best thing you can do is share my work with friends and family who might enjoy it.

And the best part is that the book is just $4.99!! Meaning the for half price it costs to buy a round of beers at the bar, you and your loved ones can, and will be entertained for hours. In the process, you’ll help support me and this website as well.  

Now obviously if you have any questions, you can always feel free to hit me up either here, by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or on Twitter @Aaron_Torres and I’ll be glad to help you out however I can.

And finally, I just want to thank each and every one of you for making this eBook possible. It couldn’t have happened without all your support and everything you’ve done for me; not just in 2012 but all the years that led up to it too. It’s been, a long, fun, bumpy ride, but I wouldn’t have reached this point without the support of each and every one of you.

So thank you.

Pick up your copy of Aaron Torres Presents the Year in Sports 2012 today!!

- Aaron Torres
 

Alright folks, so a few hours ago I mentioned that I had a pretty big announcement to make, and since I’m a nice guy and don’t feel like wasting anyone’s time this morning, here goes:

In early December I will be releasing my first ever eBook! It’s tentatively titled “Aaron Torres Presents the Year in Sports 2012” and is a compilation of my best columns and articles from the 2012 calendar year from this website and beyond. Lots of writers of have done similar stuff before (usually in the traditional publishing industry) and I decided to take a stab at it this winter.

There are a couple reasons why.

For one, over the course of the last year, I’ve written… a lot. I’ve written on everything from Alabama’s BCS National Championship, to an emerging Kentucky hoops to dynasty, to the most annoying fans in sports Part’s I and II. Not to mention stuff on Bryce Harper, Anthony Davis and the passing of a man’s best friend. At the end of the day, writing is who I am. It’s what I do every single day of my life, along with eating, sleeping and making bad Charlie Weis jokes.

But at the same time, it’s hard for anyone to keep track of it all, even me. Trust me, I understand that you all have jobs and families and different obligations that take you away from the computer and from the outside world around you. After all, just because I’m a loner who barely leaves his computer doesn’t mean you’re the same, right?

Either way, this eBook is the chance for me to aggregate everything I’ve done, and put it all in one place. This isn’t like Twitter where an article can get lost in the shuffle, and isn’t even like my website where the articles are mixed in with podcasts, interviews and random announcements. This is all my best writing, all in one place, categorized by date and sport to make it easy for you to consume. And for the record, this eBook does consist only of my best writing. You wouldn’t believe how much quality stuff didn’t make cut.

And in addition to the writing, I’ve also gone ahead and added a little update blurb on each article in the book. Heck, half the fun in these articles isn’t the content themselves, but more so how much stuff has changed since then. Like how Bobby Petrino has gone from villain to hero since the day he was fired, or how quickly everyone was ready to re-write history after Kentucky won the National Championship. The point is, a lot has happened in sports in 2012, and I tried to capture it all. Not just in the moment it happened, but also the ramifications since.

As for the specifics of the eBook, the goal is to have it out the first week of December, tentatively on Wednesday, December 5. Hopefully by then you’ll have some of your Christmas shopping done, and will know whether you can fit the small price of the eBook into your budget. Right now, the book will be tentatively priced somewhere between $5 and $7, and it’s my hope that the book is affordable for everyone.

Also, I should probably mention that while it’s to the disappointment of some, the book will only be available digitally. Believe me, I understand that all of you don’t have e-readers, and believe me when I say I’msympathetic to that. I really am. At the same time, I am footing the bill for this book completely out of pocket, and the cost of printing was simply too much to make this into a standard book. I hope you understand, but also hope that if you do have an e-reader, you’ll consider making the purchase. The book will be available on all Kindle platforms, and I’m currently trying to get things figured out with iTunes as well.

Otherwise, that’s all I’ve really got to say. Well, other than to give you a thank you, of course.

Please understand it’s you guys who have inspired me to write this book and convinced me that it will be a success. You guys not only read not my stuff, not only comment on it and critique and criticize me, but also are amongst the most supportive group of readers I could ever ask for. I can’t tell you how humbling it is to hear just once, “Hey man, I really enjoy your work.” It makes all the hard work worth it every time.

It’s also why I know this book will be a success. I wouldn’t have put it together if it wasn’t something that I thought you all would enjoy and respond to.

Either way, if you’ve got any questions, feel free to hit me up on Twitter (@Aaron_Torres) or by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , and also subscribe to my e-newsletter for updates on the book as well (just type in your e-mail to the box on the right-hand side of this site). Also, I will be providing updates here at Aaron Torres Sports as well right up until the book is published.

Once again, I want to thank you for all the support.

And if we don’t speak between now and then, well, Happy Thanksgiving.

Aaron
 

As many of you may remember, a few weeks ago I appeared on the ESPNU TV show "UNITE" to break down Week 2 of the college football season.

Well apparently I did a pretty decent job, and on Wednesday, Halloween night, they asked me back to preview Oregon-USC. I was given the task of defending the Trojans, even if I didn't (and still don't) actually think they're going to win Saturday.

More importantly though, I did get one very strict edict from the UNITE staff: They expected me to dress up in "costume" for my appearance. I'm not a "costume" guy per se, but hopefully met their expectations. I figured in honor of 'SC and in honor of their win at Autzen Stadium last year, I'd dress up like Lane Kiffin did last fall in Eugene.

Above is the picture of Kiffin from that Saturday night, and hopefully my outfit on UNITE did a decent job of matching that.

Hope you enjoy!

So, we’ve got a major announcement coming out of Aaron Torres Sports Headquarters this afternoon…

Ok, so maybe the announcement isn’t exactly “major,” per se.

And maybe by “headquarters” I actually mean “a corner table at an overcrowded Pasadena Starbucks.”

Whatever! I do have an announcement none the less. Here goes:

A few weeks back, I decided to start a once weekly e-mail newsletter to keep you updated on everything that’s going on here at Aaron Torres Sports. And today is the day that the newsletter officially launches! You can even see a fancy sign-up tab on the right side of the site, where it says “Aaron Torres Sports Mailing List.”

Pretty cool, huh?

It’s also pretty important.

Quick question for you: Off the top of your head, how many people can you name in the Pro Volleyball Hall of Fame?

It’s ok, take your time. I’ll give you a minute to think about it…

…

…

Done?

How’d you do?

By now, you likely know that I’m only teasing, but for those sitting around thinking “Aaron, dude, I know nothing about volleyball, I obviously don’t know of anyone in their Hall of Fame,” well, you’d actually be wrong. That’s because anyone with even the most rudimentary sports knowledge knows the name of at least one man in the Volleyball Hall of Fame. You just don’t know you know it.

So who is this international man of mystery?

It’s actually Wilt Chamberlain. Yes, that Wilt Chamberlain, a man who spent his twilight years away from the basketball hardwood and on the beaches of Southern California, moonlighting as both a part-time volleyball player and full-time attraction.

“You wouldn’t see the sun when he went up for a block,” veteran volleyball coach Adam Cutrell recently said of the legendary stories of Wilt in the sand.

Granted, at age 37, Cutrell was too young to ever see the 7’1 Chamberlain play. But in a weird twist of irony, Cutrell is now front and center to see the closest thing to Chamberlain hit volleyball, since Chamberlain himself left the sport decades ago.

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