I was listening to the local sports radio station yesterday and heard one of the guys say that the hottest selling bumper sticker in Georgia and Tennessee and Mississippi at the moment is:
“Honk If You’ve Been Interviewed To Coach Alabama”
That’s mildly humorous but it did get me to thinking that if the reports are even close to accurate, ‘Bama has waved its “mystique” and some heavy coin under the nose of several coaches and all of them have told ‘Bama to look elsewhere. It would behoove the AD there to find someone who really would like to coach Alabama and then decide if he’s worth the trouble to negotiate terms; it is beginning to look unseemly as people keep declining the job. I know one person who really wants the job, but I doubt that Alabama would offer it to him. That would be Mike Shula.
Miami hired Randy Shannon to take over the program there. At his introductory press event, Coach Shannon touched on all the themes that new coaches feel compelled to address. He said he would focus on discipline and accountability, which is pretty standard stuff. However, he went just a bit further and said he wanted to create an “attitude to do the right thing.” That sounds just fine until you realize that Randy Shannon had been the defensive coordinator on the Miami staff for a while before moving up the ladder. No one asked him why he waited until now to create that attitude if he really thought it was all that important. Time will tell…
Looking back at the college football season, there were four teams that seemed to exceed expectations by a huge margin this year. No one had Wake Forest in a BCS bowl game back in August; no one had Arkansas in the SEC Championship Game back in August; no one had Rutgers in the conversation about BCS bowl berths in late November; and no one had Rice in a bowl game of any kind. Kudos to those four schools.
Three teams fell way short of expectations. Miami was supposed to be an ACC powerhouse but barely made themselves bowl eligible; Florida State was supposed to be an ACC powerhouse but barely made themselves bowl eligible; and Pitt started off the season with a 6-1 record and then lost five straight games to miss out on a bowl invitation entirely despite being “bowl eligible”.
Let me try to reinforce for you the notion that you are not obligated in any way to watch any of the individual bowl games that present meaningless match-ups. You do not owe your viewing time to ESPN for bringing you other interesting sports events during the year; you may – - nay, you should – - exercise the right to do something else while many of those games are on. Don’t watch New Mexico vs. San José St. on the basis of some false sense of obligation.
And please, do not watch the worst bowl game of them all. On January 7, 2007 as part of the ramp-up to the BCS Championship Game, the GMAC Bowl will happen in Mobile, Alabama. In that game, Ohio University will play Southern Mississippi and if there were ever a game that deserved the name “Afterthought Bowl”, this would be it. Ohio was the loser in the MAC Championship Game; Southern Miss was the loser in the Conference USA Championship Game. Pardon me while I yawn…
The next time you hear Dr. Myles Brand and/or any spokesthing for the university presidents say they are opposed to a football playoff because it extends the season into the spring semester or that the university presidents are absolutely opposed to “second semester football” – one of their tried and true phrases – please remember this “Afterthought Bowl” being played on January 7. Maybe every school isn’t back in session by then, but it is starting to get close to that “second semester starting date” and this is a truly meaningless game to have so close to that date, no?
For all of its flaws, the BCS seems to provide an interesting news item every year as a reaction to the screams and howls of whatever team feels it has been screwed over by the system. This year it is Michigan’s turn to be righteously indignant and some legislators in Michigan have passed a resolution calling for a football playoff in order to avoid “future injustices”.
Memo to Michigan Legislature:
1. Spend your time figuring out how you are going to provide an economy that will employ all of the autoworkers who are being laid off every other week.
2. Spend your time figuring out how to revitalize some really dreary urban centers in your state.
3. When it comes to resolutions regarding college football scheduling, save your breath to blow your beans.
The IOC has approved a new sport for the 2010 Winter Olympics to be held in British Columbia. The sport is called ski cross and in the press release making this pronouncement, ski cross is described as a “freestyle event similar to snowboard cross.” Well thank you for that; now if I had even an inkling of what snowboard cross was… Here’s an idea:
If you feel compelled to have to explain in your press release what your new Olympic sport is, you probably should not be adding it to the Olympic Games.
Finally, here’s an item from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald:
“Hey, this is great news. Congratulations, guys. I’ve just been told the Orange Bowl Committee has been nominated for an Oscar in the category Most Convincing Portrayal of Being Thrilled by a Wake Forest-Louisville Matchup.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…