Gary Barnett will continue on as the coach at Colorado. University President, Betsy Hoffman, reinstated him yesterday. Despite the findings of a commission that said that Hoffman and Barnett and two other people were de minimis asleep at the switch, the Regents voted to keep Hoffman and she brought back Barnett. Please note everyone; this is the decision of the university president. Have we heard from Dr. Myles Brand on this matter? I wonder how this fits into his grand plan to have university presidents rein in these out of control athletic departments? Dr. Brand? We're listening…

Former Colorado football coach, Bill McCartney, evidently wrote an open letter to the university urging the reinstatement of Barnett and in that letter he tried to make the point that the football graduates of Colorado were superior to “other graduates” in many of life's dimensions. I'm not even going to dignify that letter with a dissection here because it is as over-the-top as Dennis Rodman. However, Bernie Lincicome's column in the Rocky Mountain News yesterday is an absolutely brilliant skewering of the underlying ideas in the letter. Here is one taste to whet your appetite.

“I'm on the edge of my seat. What could the five major criteria possibly be that would give the edge to the old jocks over the chemistry majors? Decency? Charity? Courtesy? Duty? Morality?

“No, no and no, no, no. McCartney's five major criteria: Marriage Longevity, Community Service, Job Stability, Real Estate Holdings, Bank Credit.

“In other words, the perfect citizen is a never-divorced, unfired volunteer fireman who owns his own home and can get a loan whenever he wants.

“It is no special relief to me that I am all of these things, myself, and what's more, I recycle. Do I get bonus points?”

This must be the year of cleansing. In addition to Barnett getting his job back, Larry Eustachy and Mike Price are starting back on their career paths after significant detours. George O' Leary has a job – albeit at a level several rungs down on the ladder from Notre Dame. But one name is missing from this list; is he not yet cleansed? Rick Neuheisel is still unemployed as a football coach in college or in the NFL. Since Neuheisel was the football coach at Colorado between McCartney and Barnett, one must assume that he too learned important values in the program. I wonder on which of McCartney's five major criteria Neuheisel falls short…

And while I am frothing over football and university presidents, don't you find the stance that some of these posers have taken against “second semester football” just a bit silly. Football already starts in the Summer semester and continues throughout the Fall. It is already a two-semester sport. By the way, so is college basketball since forever.

On one hand you have university presidents dealing with athletics; on the other hand you have the Olympics organizers. Which group is lower on the food chain? This is a difficult choice. I read an interview with the Chief of the Athens Games who expressed grave concern that the media is sending a consistently bad message to people who would want to harm the games. After Australia warned its citizens that attending the games might be dangerous, the Greek organizer said:

“Telling them [terrorists] that there are holes in Athens' security procedures and that our preparations can be circumvented – when all of our preparations are designed to achieve the opposite – is bad security strategy. I worry that harm is being done to the Olympic Games.”

Memo to Athens Games Chief: Glad to know that your efforts are indeed intended to stop terrorists. Glad you got that part of the preparation right. Did you perchance notice that the last bomb explosion in Athens was outside a police station? Might not those perpetrators have found a hole in your preparations?

Here is what Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel had to say about Olympic security:

“You wonder when they are going to announce the newest Olympic event: synchronized ducking.”

Did you catch the heart pounding drama of the NBA Draft Lottery last night? Cardiologists all over the country are glad that one is over; I don't know how some people with high blood pressure can stand the tension. If you missed it, the Orlando Magic will pick first; the Clippers will pick second; the Bulls will pick third; the Charlotte Bobcats will pick fourth as part of their buy-in deal to the NBA and the Wizards will pick fifth. Forgetting the Bobcats for a moment, does that list look like “the usual suspects”?

This should not bother the Wizards because GM, Ernie Grunfeld, said yesterday that he did not see any glaring holes in the team. He's absolutely correct. There are no glaring holes because every player on the roster is seriously flawed. He has twelve holes on a twelve-man roster and so none could possibly be “glaring”.

The first game of the Tampa/Calgary Stanley Cup finals got a 1.1 rating which translates to just over 1 million viewers. That number is about half the XFL ratings at its lowest and just slightly above Arena Football regular season games. By comparison, the “final event” of the Triple Crown in about 10 days will probably get a rating between 9.0 and 10.0.

Finally, here is a good line from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald:

“Lakers-Timberwolves semi-final playoff series moves to LA, meaning frequent TV shots of aging Lakers 'star fans' like Jack Nicholson, Goldie Hawn and Dyan Cannon. It's the only arena in the NBA where the concession stands sell collagen and Botox.”

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...

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