Okay, so Rice was on 392 of the 543 ballots last year. He needed 408 to top 75 percent, which would have gotten him in. The way I see it, a lot of prick media people who hated Rice have been waiting until the final year to reluctantly "let" him in, since they know he deserves it anyway. I think a lot of those will put him on their ballot, making him a lock in '09. However, how much is "a lot"? I'm gonna say 1 in 3. 135 voters left him off, so that would give him 35 of those, giving him 437 votes. 80.4 percent. That's my guess. I'd like to think it would be even more--like, 80 percent of those holdouts will finally say yes to Rice. But I think 1/3 is more reasonable.

Then again, if you're truly anti-Rice, you'll just continue to not vote for him, and he'll be out. But I'm rooting so hard for Jim. Today, at 1:30ish, we find out.

I decided not to write an "assuming he's in" piece. I'll just write some Rice memories tomorrow after we find out. In the meantime, he'll always be in this Hall.