When I want to geek out on one of the major sports, especially the NFL (and sometimes MLB or even lesser-followed events), I turn to Grantland, one of my favorite sites. It provides great insights and writing, eye-glazing analysis, and has the added bonus of covering pop culture (music! film!), too. The Oscars are being awarded this coming weekend and in its typical 'let's provide a lot of info and let you decide whether you agree with us' fashion, Grantland has been running a series of articles and videos about the award nominees, complete with thorough analysis and commentary, and of course, predictions. Now, being a fan of second-run movie theaters, I personally don't see many of the movies before the Oscars are handed out, so my predictions are about as accurate as any attempt I might have to predict the NCAA basketball tournament results, Warren Buffett's billion dollars notwithstanding.

But in the spirit of tossing a guess or two out there, I'm going to say that 12 Years a Slave gets the best picture nod, all right, all right, all right Matthew McConaughey for best actor, and a sentimental pick for one of my all-time faves, Dame Judi Dench for best actress. I'm willing to hedge my bet, there, though and put Cate Blanchett right up there.

So we'll see. Oh, Kansas for the men, and Connecticut for the women, although I have a few weeks to vacillate on that one.