ROLL TIDE

Laissez les bon temps rouler TIDE.
More tomorrow o the aftermath of this game as a reflection of our society.

College Football

First, I must preface this by stating that I received my graduate education at the University of Alabama. Granted this was in the mourning period for Bear Bryant but being at Alabama was a football education in itself. I am not, however, going to write of the glories of the Crimson Tide. Instead, I will focus on the general stink that is College Football circa 2011.
A week does not go by where there is not news of some football program under investigation for some sort of rules violation by some major program. USC has had to forfeit a national title, Ohio State fired its head coach and so on. Now we have revelations and accusations about the University of Miami, the "U". Miami has one of those programs that has long tiptoed around the border of compliance. The most recent accusations do not look like tiptoeing, but, rather, obliteration. Payoffs to large numbers of players, prostitutes, abortions, and so on. If the accusations are validated, it would make SMU's violations of the mid-1980s look juvenile.
What is the solution? The usual suspects call for stipends to be paid to players and end the folly of amateurism. This does not solve the problem. There will still be boosters willing to give bonuses.
There is one alternative that no one dares mention.
BLOW IT UP!
End big-time athletics. It all goes back to the basic question: what is the mission of the university? Is it to be a farm system for the National Football League? Let the NFL spend some of its billions on a farm system and let universities get back to their priority.

Something Different

Dallas is a religious city. In the fall we go to our churches up to four times on weekends. Friday night its high school football. Saturday is for college football. Sunday morning we go to the house of worship of our choice and pray the sermon doesn't run so long that we are late for the fourth service: the Cowboys. Dallas has been like this as long as I can remember. When Roger Staubach retired in 1980, all the local stations (except the PBS affiliate) carried it live. So it comes as no surprise that the lead story on the news tonight is the apparently imminent breakup of the Big 12 conference. Colorado is gone (were they ever in?). Nebraska is on the verge of leaving. And rumors are flying as to what UT, Tech, A&M, OU, and OSU are going to do. If they follow Colorado's lead and go to the Pac-10, I believe they will feel right at home. USC's latest shenanigans would have been right at home in the days of the Southwest Conference and the Big 8. The Jackie Sherrill era at A&M, the Mike Leach era at Tech (from which the dust has yet to settle), the Barry Switzer years at OU. All of these draw some comparison to USC's current troubles. Now we know why Pete Carroll left La-la land for the Pacific Northwest. He said in his statement today that he knew nothing of the charges against USC while he was coach. Sorry Pete, but your audition for the role of Sgt. Schultz in the remake of Hogan's Heroes is next week. If USC does have to vacate the title from their blowout of OU, what does that say about Vince Young and UT's win over virtually the same team the next year? Certainly one of the greatest games ever. The sad thing about all the commentary about USC? I heard one talking head compare in severity to that of SMU in the 80s. Isn't it time to leave SMU alone?