April 21, 2008
Yet More College Football Bowl Games?
It wasn’t all that long ago that I grudgingly offered a word of praise to the NCAA because they did not allow college football teams with losing records to play in their bowl games. That could change. The NCAA has applications for three new bowl games – we need them only slightly more than we need a new TV channel that features Celine Dion music 24/7 – and the NCAA is expected to approve those applications. The new games would be played in Washington DC, St. Petersburg FL and Salt Lake City UT. And with the addition of these three games, the NCAA draws perilously close to having a team with a losing record play in a bowl game.
Last year there were 32 bowl games; that required 64 teams with at least a 6-6 record. Last year there were 71 teams who hit that mark. With three new games, that will require 70 teams with at least a 6-6 record and if there aren’t a sufficient number of dead awful teams out there going 0-12 and/or 1-11, there is no guarantee that there will be 70 teams at .500 or better. Remember, there are only about 120 teams playing Division 1A college football.
Speaking of college football, there was a story on gatorsports.com that Florida sophomore speedster Percy Harvin had a heel injury that would keep him out of spring practice. Coach Urban Meyer said:
“It’s a heel injury and it’s gone up into his knee. We had a specialist from North Carolina and two guys, a foot specialist from here, and also (head team physician) Dr. Pete (Indelicato). We’re coming up with a plan and should have it in the next couple days.”
I don’t want to be accused of practicing medicine without a license here, but it seems as if this condition could be caused by something that we all know:
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The heel bone’s connected to the anklebone…
The anklebone’s connected to the leg bone…
The leg bone’s connected to the knee bone…
With the NCAA Women’s basketball tournament Final Four in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, the Tampa Tribune had a story proximal to the Finals there with this headline:
‘’Final Four Gives Lesbians Forum To Celebrate Women.'’
In the article itself, these two quotations appear:
‘’I don’t care about sports. I can’t wait to check out all the parties and the great lesbian scene.'’
‘’I don’t know what percentage of fans are gay, but I know that all lesbians support women’s college athletics.'’
Let me be perfectly clear about something here. I do not care even a little bit if women who are lesbians are fans of women’s college athletics. I do not care if women who are lesbians use the women’s Final Four as a reason to come together and enjoy each other’s company at parties. I don’t care if individual women choose to be lesbians or heterosexuals or asexuals. All of that is their business and not mine.
The NCAA probably felt as if it needed to respond to this business. I would not have responded were I in charge of the NCAA but someone there or one of their PR consultants convinced them to say something. And here was the NCAA’s response:
‘’To say any NCAA championship appeals to a certain percentage of a particular segment of the population, especially without scientific backing, is without merit. The truth is each tournament appeals to a core group of fans but that core is as diverse as the American population itself.'’
That sounds good and it certainly pushes the right buttons - - unless you read it analytically. The NCAA characterizes the appeal of their women’s basketball tournament to lesbians as “without merit” because there is no scientific backing to that claim. Then in the next breath it asserts that the women’s tournament appeals to fans “as diverse as the American population itself” - - which is also without any scientific backing. If the claim of “appeal to lesbians” is without merit, then so is the assertion by the NCAA.
Please remember, this is the organization run by Dr. Myles Brand who told us how he – as a former university president – was going to marshal the forces of university presidents around the country to keep athletics in line with the mainstream mission of universities everywhere.
Memo to Dr. Myles Brand: Teaching students to use logical reasoning as the foundation for debate on issues in contention has been part of the mainstream mission of universities for centuries. Perhaps, you might get some of your NCAA minions to take a refresher course there…
Al McGuire was a character - - in addition to being a very good basketball coach. After he retired from coaching, McGuire teamed with Dick Enberg and Billy Packer to do NCAA basketball telecasts. That trio was outstanding. McGuire’s quick wit and his fundamental lightheartedness about college basketball kept Billy Packer in line and kept Packer from being the annoying scold he tends to be. Now, Dick Enberg has written a one-man play called McGuire. According to reviews, it captures the essence of Al McGuire. If that is the case and if it comes to my part of the world, I’ll be checking it out.
Finally, here is a comment from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald from several months ago:
“German pole-vaulter Yvonne Buschbaum announced she will undergo a sex change and become a man. I didn’t believe it at first. Thought it was just one of those ‘’he said, she said'’ things.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…
