Just Kidding, Text Away

There was much ado made when the NCAA’s original decision to pass an out and out ban on text messaging back in April came to light. Coaches did what coaches do best, complained, a lot. Mack Brown remarked of the ease of communication that text messagging allows coaches to have to prospective students and how that ability was about to be savagely revoked from his fellow coaches. He then rose to his feet, turned his back on the assembled media and retired to his private office where he regularly spends time in total silence, meditating before a life size statue of Vince Young.  In general this was another unpopular rule from the coaches perspective.

 But it looks like Mack Brown can leave his office once again. The NCAA has in essence said Just Kidding. There will be bit of dilliberation among the NCAA’s Board of Directors in August regaurding the blanket ban on text messaging from schools to recruits. It appears that the NCAA is listening to the ideas voiced by many that the text messaging should be regulated, but not banned.

There would be little success in acctually enforcing the rule. Enforcing the rules falls to the compliance departments across the country which typically have more important things to do than monitering the phone use of all of their coaches, like making sure these don’t get broken which is hard enough to do. The athletic departments don’t really have time to check all the coaches phones. So I would bet on a scaled back rule in regaurds to text messaging. Which will be easy to circumvent and will be throughly abused because that is the way of things. That is why text messaging was banned in the first place.

Story Of The Year

There is no refuting the tragedy that shook the hills of Western Virginia. To borrow a line from Franklin Deleno Roosevelt it is a day that will live in infamy. I am a major proponent of the social good that can be achieved through sport. You wouldn’t know it by watching sports center but sports do bring out the best in people on a far more consistent basis than it brings out the worst in them. While there is no conclusive evidence to back that statement up it is something that I really buy into. For whatever reason. As, an idea, it can be easily dismissed, and usually is by the main stream media who generally hone in on all negative aspects of sport, such as player arrests, contract disputes, steroid use, ect. Those are the stories that circulate well, and that we as the consuming public eat up with gusto. But there is a thin line that divides stories that are done with tact, and those that aren’t. ESPN is the industry leader and tends to place one foot on each side of that line. That is something that worries me about this up coming season. 

Now every once in a while a story in the world of sport comes along that is so irrefutably pure, so positive that major media outlets jump on and ride it to death. The most recent example is an obvious one, the story book season of the 2006 New Orleans Saints. It was easily the story of the year in the NFL. It was as pure a story as you can get in this day and age. The Saints throwing the entirety of the gulf coast on their back and simply allowing them to forget every thing that happened. Watching Monday Night Football when the Saints came back to New Orleans was one of those games where you sit on your couch, watching everything unfold and say that you will remember that night. It was such a great night and it was so memorable. You could tell from that moment on that the Saints were a team that ran on emotion and that emotion that poured out from the crescent city was going to drive that team. Now in the beginning the coverage of the Saints was based cleanly on the tactful side of the line. But was the season wore on the coverage of the Saints began to inch close and closer to that line. The constant talk about how the Saints were the rallying point of an entire region did grow old. The video montages comprised of footage from the Saints season interloped with footage of Katrina and her aftermath became more and more frequent. It begged the question why do it? After all this is the era of 24/7 constant media saturation. Everyone saw what happened when Katrina made landfall, everyone saw what happened when the levees were breached, everyone saw how the rescue effort was horribly mismanaged. Everyone around the world saw what happened. So why rehash those horrific events? It is not like anyone had time to forget what had happened so that we had to be reminded. So why do it? I couldn’t find a reason. That is why I grew tired of the media forcing us to remember once more what happened to New Orleans in order for us to rejoice in the positivity that the Saints had brought that region. It just wasn’t needed.

Now, Virginia Tech. The Hookies will have a very good year. Will probably win the ACC Atlantic Division and be ranked in the top 10 all year. That would put them in the center of the College Football world as is. But given what transpired in April the effect and impact will make it without question going to be the story of the year in College Football even if the Hookies have a bad season. If the Hookies can go into Tiger Stadium (Using the moniker Death Valley would be nothing if not obtuse) and come out with a victory the media storm around the team would be so large, and so out of control that I fear what might happen. I don’t want to figure out what the coverage will degenerate into. College Gameday will be in Blacksburg to start the season. I don’t have an issue with that. Tennessee vs. California will the bigger game with more implications than Virginia Tech vs. East Carolina will have on the season to follow. But Blacksburg is the bigger story. I know that ESPN will do a piece on what happened on April 16th, and that it will be extremely well done and will show a lot of respect for the community. But I do hope that it is as far as they go. Hope that they stay on the right side of the line. We all know what happened we all saw it unfold with our own eyes. I just hope that the sports media as a group shows the respect that the national media didn’t back in April. I hope they repress the urge to show video of the bodies being carried out of Norris Hall on a loop when talking about Virginia Tech Football. That was an urge they couldn’t master with the Saints last year, I hope that the people in charge get it right this year. I hope they stay on the right side of the line.

 

My New Home

I am done with Google, this is my new home.

A Tough Road to Hoe Mr. Calhoun, A Tough Road to Hoe

I must admit that a quick glance at this page would lead one to believe that I have become a bit Colorado-centric but I think this is a fairly interesting story. Let me begin with saying that I have the utmost respect of the Men who play Football for any of the service academies. I doubt that anyone in the country loves the game more than them. Honestly Football should be the farthest thing from their minds, and the least of their concerns. But still they devote as much time to Football as every other kid, at every other program in the country.

I would fancy a bet that to most College Football fans the state of the Air Force Falcons Football program is of little concern or interest. That is a shame because for a very long time this program did everything the right way. They embodied the spirit of their coach on the field. They were like Nebraska under Dr. Thom Osborne; maybe not as flash and fast as Huskers but to me they carried themselves the right way. In 2005 the Falcons program was thrown upon the national stage for some statements made by the Monarch. After a frustrating loss to the, almost BCS bound Horned Frogs of Texas Christian (More on them in a minute) DeBerry remarked that “…you don’t see a lot of minority athletes in our program.” If that weren’t enough when asked for clarification on that quote later in the week he responded with “It just seems to be that way, that Afro-American kids can run very, very well. That doesn’t mean that Caucasian kids and other descents can’t run, but it’s very obvious to me they run extremely well.” Aside from research suggesting that Berry actually was pretty close to the topic regardless of his intent http://www.jonentine.com/reviews/quokka_01.htm. But anytime the topic of race is involved a maelstrom ensues and someone is going to go down.

It seemed inevitable; that soundbite would herald the end of the Fisher DeBerry era. And it was, one year later. DeBerry was a wonderful coach and produced a lot of good for Air Force Football. But it looks as if that 10 second soundbite is going to brand him. Just like the image of Woody Hayes punching Charlie Bauman has long since been ingrained into every College Football fans mind. The point is, if you mention Air Force that situation is likely to be on the top of every one’s minds.

Troy Calhoun has the task of changing that perception. I like his enthusiasm but he has a long way to go. Air Force has never been a consist ant conference title threat. They would string a series of winning seasons together with the occasional set back year being offset by a conference crown. They have dominated the Commander In Chiefs Trophy but have been middle of the road in whatever conference they occupy at the time. The Falcons last won a title 8 years and a conference ago. As it stands now Air Force looks even further away from that 1998 WAC Championship now. In the three years since the last Air Force winning season the Mountain West has improved by leaps and bounds. In 2004 Utah crashed the BCS and won America’s heart. In 2005 TCU had a let down after beating Oklahoma in Norman, inexplicably losing to SMU in Dallas costing them a BCS bid. Last season a resurgent BYU was this close to going undefeated. Losing two games by a combined 6 points and missing out on joining Boise State in the BCS. The Mountain West has established in short order their spot as the preeminent non BCS conference.

Which amplifies the task at hand for Mr. Calhoun. Can Air Force keep pace with the rapidly improving Mountain West? I don’t think they can. I am not sure they will ever be as consistent as they were in hay day of DeBerry. They will string together a few winning seasons here and there but that will be the extent of it. The fact that they will always be a tough and aggressive team will help, it is just the nature of the kids who enroll in the service academies, but I don’t think they will ever escape from the basement of the Mountain West, which is were they are going to find themselves again this year. You have to hope for the best for those kids, but they might soon join Army at bottom of the Bowl Subdivision barrel.

More Buffalo Trouble

Everything has been going so swimmingly for the University of Colorado Buffalo’s Football team the last few years. What with their 2-10 record last season and the massive controversy that has encircled this program for roughly the last 5 years. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that the Buffs Football program has been placed back on probation. Now, the NCAA usually only imposes probation upon programs for only the most egregious offenses against the notion of amateurism. The egregious offense that the CU is guilty of? Not charging walk-on’s the full rate for the training table that feeds all scholarship players in all sports and is usually between 6 to 8 dollars. What a stunning example of blatantly flouting the clear and concise rules that NCAA imposes upon all who reside within their domain. Basically the Buffalo’s punishment will be one scholarship per year for each of the next three years. They also have to donate 100,000 dollars to a food based charity of their choice. This punishment is absurd beyond thought. First of all why is that even a violation of rules. They were not giving walk-on’s free meals, those kids still had to pay what every other student had to pay for a meal plan. I am not an expert in the difference between a meal plan meal that every other student received, and the training table the athletes dine on, but it can’t be that big of a difference. So what is the big deal here, what is the issue? As far as I can tell this is a not an Office Space grand conspiracy devised by the athletic department to funnel money into a separate account just for kicks. Sure it was a violation of rules, but clearly no one gave it a second thought. Which is strange when you think about the time period involved. 2000 through 2005 which unappropriated nicely the period of greatest scrutiny for the CU Athletic Department. Maybe the punishment has something to do with that, which is completely absurd, but this is the NCAA so anything is possible. Besides, if there was a conspiracy to screw over the NCAA, the place to kick off that scheme would certainly not be with walk on’s and their methods of feeding themselves. The question you have to ask is would any other school guilty of a similar offense be cost a scholarship? If USC, Texas or Notre Dame did the same thing would they lose a scholarship? Not a chance in hell; it just wouldn’t happen there. This offense, which happened over a period of 5 years has to be construed as a, from the NCAA’s perspective at least, example of the dreaded lack of institutional control. Because when I think about an institutions ability to control its athletic department the first place I would look for evidence is about as far away from the training table as I could get. There is no similarity to the events of a few years ago where recruiting visits under Rick Neuheisel’s staff resembled Nelly’s video for Tip Drill. How can anyone construe this to be a major offense. There is nothing about the offense that merits a punishment even close to the one being levelled on Colorado. Losing one scholarship per year for the next three years for that? Unless you are seeking to prove a point and make an example of a program who has, in the past, shown a blatant disregard for the archaic rules of the NCAA. The people in Boulder are livid, and I can really see their point.