March Madness

With the clocks shifted to allow more daylight, Colin has decided to take advantage of it by practicing his jump shot in the driveway. He did acknowledge that he and Daddy were on the same team, Drake, and we were taking on Michigan. Of course we won and tomorrow we will take on Illinois as well as Tubby's Team.

However there is someone in Long Beach, California who doesn't believe Title IX should include one sport.

And other financial issues have hit the state of Michigan.

Finally, the last two days have shown outstanding

basketball. The NCAA Tournament is remembered for its last-second shots and heroic play, but I hope it can match the excitement the last two days have brought. Syracuse and UConn played to six OTs, then the Orange turned around after last night for another OT win against West Virginia. Kansas falls to the #9 seed, Baylor and then Baylor defeats Texas tonight to advance to the Big 12 Champsionship game. Oklahoma is defeated by Oklahoma State with controversy to end the game. The final 2.3 seconds did not start giving the Sooners two opportunities to win-each missed.

Wrong Type of Bedlam

Saturday when Oklahoma State hosts in-state rival Oklahoma in the Bedlam Series, less than a capacity crowd may be on hand at Boone Pickens Stadium. In what is becomming a disturbingly popular trend, fans looking to attend the Cowboy's home game must purchase season tickets.

A year ago Iowa State and its Athletic Director, Jamie Pollard was the first to mandate access to the in-state rivalry game with Iowa was by season ticket access. 49,516 were in Jack Trice Stadium that day to witness one of the biggest upsets in the series history. The Cyclones connected on five field goals, one with :05 in regulation to upset the heavily favored Hawkeyes. The crowd was short of capacity by less than a thousand, but with standing room, the attendance could've approached 54,000. A reliable source said regarding the game, tickets were made available secretively as the Cyclones did not sell 49,000 season tickets.


This Saturday projected attendance at Stillwater is 39,000 based on season ticket sales, leaving 15,000 empty seats. Unless OU fans want to spend $292 for season tickets for this one game, there should be less than a capacity crowd. However we know there won't be many empty seats for this game. As was the case with Iowa State in 2007, there are ways to distribute tickets to fans of the home team as well as distributing the tickets to brokers who can make the money needed for the University.


The reason for this move is based on financial issues. Iowa State and Oklahoma State cannot succeed in the Big 12, a conference which is not based on revune sharing from their television contracts, without selling out most of their home games. They demand, from their fan base that if they want to be a fan, there is a financial responsibility that goes along with it. And if the fans demand success, they must ante up their level of support.


While I understand and will defend the athletic directors for this unprecedented move, let's not forget who is responsible for letting athletic department budgets escalate. Athletic directors and university presidents have signed off on the sky-rocketing salaries that coaches are being paid today. This "arms race" is out of control and the university brass need to control their spending. Fans demand winning athletic teams and they don't care at what cost. But coaches will still coach as long as their salaries are competitive. Theoretically if Nick Saban is the highest paid coach at $300,000, then other coaches will demand like amounts. But once the athletic directors and presidents began to pay coaches millions of dollars a year, as well as bonuses for bowl games, graduation rates, etc. (which isn't this in their job description?) the financial responsibility rests back on the fan to support the program.


Don't blame the fans for inappropriate spending of university funds, blame university presidents.

College Football Week 7

The adjacent pictures tells it all from Ann Arbor. Rich Rodriguez may be able to get the storied Michigan football program back to national prominence, but it is suffering some very low times. For the first time in 25 attempts a Mid American Conference school has beaten the Michigan Wolverines. Toledo pulled off what many would consider an upset when a Michigan Field Goal went wide left with four seconds to play. It is hard to say when the next victory will come for the Maize and Blue. They have yet to face Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan State and Minnesota. Yes, Minnesota. There are no easy teams left on the Michigan schedule. They must go 4-2 to be bowl eligible and keep their consecutive bowl streak of 33 alive.

The National Title should be decided between representatives of teams in the Big 12 and SEC. Each have had schools hold the #1 spot in the polls and the top tens have been dominated by schools from these conferences. Texas is the current holder of the top spot and with wins over their next three opponents will solidify their spot. It begins this week with Missouri, followed by Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. Those three teams have a combined one loss among them. That loss came this past week when Missouri fell to Okie State.

Who is the worst football team in Division I? While Syracuse has been losing, the Orange has had least made games competitive. They held a lead in the fourth quarter against Pitt two weeks ago, and lost 17-6 at West Virginia this past Saturday? There are many contenders such as Washington and I saw first hand how poor Indiana can be. But my vote goes to Washington State. They gave up 66 points to Oregon State over the weekend and 42 of those came in the second half. It has gotten so bad for Wazzu that current students have been asked to audition for the role of scout team QB. Whoever played that role this previous week may look to be a starter soon, that is if they prepared the defense for what 66 points would look like.

Goodbye Tommy Bowden. Too bad you couldn't schedule your father more.