Sports-wise, I'm happy to hop into 2012

I'm not really one for the end-of-year Top Ten lists like the one we in Sunday's Gazette with our top ten Iowa sports stories of 2011.

There are several reasons. One, I had to cover several of those stories, and got sick of one of them. Literally.

That was the rhabdo deal with the Iowa football team. That story occurred last winter. I'd never heard of rhabdomyolysis before 13 Hawkeyes were hospitalized with it. Once I found out what it was, I started thinking I was coming down with it. All year long.

If I raked leaves a little too aggressively? Rhabdo. If I woke up sore from sleeping the wrong way? Rhabdo. If I cut myself shaving? Rhabdo. The strain that involves cursing like a longshoreman.

Another reason I'm not a Top Ten guy is it was formed by a vote. And I don't trust voting. Mainly because I vote.

I'm an Associated Press Top 25 football voter. You know where I had Oklahoma in my last regular-season ballot? Nowhere.

That's right, I didn't vote for a 9-3 team from the Big 12 that won at Kansas State by about a thousand points.

On purpose? No. How it happened, I have no idea. I usually check my list twice, especially as Christmas draws near. But somehow, someway, I neglected to put Oklahoma on my Dec. 4 ballot.

Just my luck, who did Iowa get paired with in the Insight Bowl later that very day? The Sooners.

Luckily for me, OU fans didn't call me out for my sin of omission. Losing the night before at Oklahoma State by about a thousand points will have that effect.

I'm not the only senile voter on either the AP, coaches or Harris polls, either. So no, I don't trust voting. About anything.

Sports-wise, work-wise, I'm ready for 2011 to circle the drain and give way to a dazzling 2012.

The best-played football game I covered didn't feature an Iowa team. It was Wisconsin over Michigan State in the Big Ten title game.

The most-exciting, most-meaningful football game in the state this year occurred when I was in a hotel room in Crawfordsville, Ind. It was Iowa State's double-overtime win over No. 2 Oklahoma State.

Do you know how frustrating it is for someone in my job to watch what turned out to be our No. 1 sports story of the whole year while in a hotel room in Crawfordsville, Ind.?

At least that hotel was OK. The place the company put us up in Lincoln on Thanksgiving Night on the eve of the Iowa-Nebraska football game? Hannibal Lecter, Freddy Krueger and the shark from "Jaws" would have declared it scary.

Speaking of the Iowa-Nebraska game: A year of hype for that?

Now, Iowa is going to the Insight Bowl with a 7-5 record and its top running back suspended. Didn't we see that movie last year?

But if this sounds like a Festivus airing of grievances, let's change courses. This was a terrific year as far as I'm concerned. I'm grateful to the highest degree of gratitude that we in Iowa didn't have to be anywhere near the Penn State story or anything remotely similar to it.

And, without bringing in Tiny Tim, Charlie Brown, and a reindeer with an oddly colored nose, I'll add a mushy quotient to this column. Thanks to all the interesting, smart, fun, and high-quality people I got to hear from, meet, and write about this year. There were a lot of you. There always are.

I'll be back in Cedar Rapids for New Year's Eve. I expect a lot of party invitations after sharing that information. Let's do it up right, because the coming year will be awesome.