 |
| |
|
 |
 |
|||||||||||
|
So where were we? Catching up on Neuheisel, Price and endangered whalesPosted: Monday June 30, 2003 11:27 AM
Hello, boys and girls. I know it's been a while, but what can I say? Normally, the dead of summer is a perfectly reasonable time for a college sports writer to go on vacation because, normally, nothing happens. A couple player arrests, some school installing artificial turf, a coach mouthing off at a booster club function. Nothing earth-shattering. So of course the minute I go away a bunch of stuff happens that I never get the chance to chime in on. Well, until now. Rick Neuheisel's firing: You're telling me that after all that other stuff, it was a bracket pool that did him in? What, Washington couldn't find an unpaid parking ticket? Mike Price's lawsuit : Funny, he was so hospitable to SI when I visited him for a story in March. Man, did that guy do a 180. What happened? Oklahoma names Jason White starting QB : Fast becoming an annual tradition. ACC expands to 12 ... er, 13 ... no, 10 ... on second thought, 11: It's pretty sad when you're already sick of writing about something, go away for three weeks, come back and it's still not resolved. My old fraternity gets kicked off campus : (Figured our largely college-oriented audience might appreciate this one.) Sad to say, the once-proud Kappa Sigma chapter at Northwestern is no more following a formal at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium that went haywire. Without going into detail, all you really need to know is that one of the charges was "animal endangerment." Even the writers of Old School couldn't have dreamt that one up. Well, a month's worth of e-mail has been piling up. What do you say we get to it?
With the ACC at 11 teams, it seems obvious that one more school will come into the fold to make 12. I know Louisville is rumored to be on the "Big Least's" short list, but the ACC would do well to scoop the Cardinals up.
BYU, Southern Miss and Marshall probably don't want to hear this, but I think Louisville has built itself into the most attractive program in the country currently outside of the BCS. Over the past half-decade, the Cardinals have more than doubled their athletic budget, developed a nationally competitive football team, opened a 42,000-seat stadium and hired Rick Pitino. They will certainly be the first team the Big East calls once the dust settles (at least after the courtesy get-laughed-at call to Notre Dame). My guess is the same old-guard ACC types that initially balked at Virginia Tech will act the same way toward Louisville, but it may just be their best available option, geographically and athletically.
College football is the last major sport left where every game counts and that is why I support the BCS. Endless seasons and long playoffs have turned me off to all sports but one, COLLEGE FOOTBALL. Someone needs to give the BCS people credit for going against the popular ideas of the day. Do you think the BCS can hold on against the onslaught of negative press?
I hear you, Mike. I've been saying the same thing for years, having lost all interest in baseball, the NBA and the NFL. I'm even finding it hard to watch college hoops, which I've always loved, before February. What makes college football different is that when likely preseason No. 1 Ohio State faces off against Washington on Aug. 30, it will have a direct impact on the national championship race, just as games the week after that and the week after that. However, college football will eventually go the way of all the other sports for the same reason the ACC is expanding: money. The TV networks and other parties will eventually convince the current BCS conferences how much more there is to be made by conducting a playoff. The common thinking is that university presidents won't sign off because it would interfere with academics, but we just saw where presidents at Florida State and Clemson were ready to send their athletes to Syracuse, N.Y., for mid-week basketball games at the mere thought of a few more $$$. And the bowls would get their feelings hurt, but if there's anything the ACC has taught us, college administrators don't have much of a problem with that either.
Stewart, with recent players from the MAC making Heisman runs, why is it that no one has said anything about Josh Harris from Bowling Green? He was responsible for 41 TDs last year and led his team into the top 25 (before fading down the stretch). Is there any chance at all that he could make a name for himself this year?
No question, Harris is a phenomenal player who should put up more huge numbers this season. And as long as we're mentioning him, the MAC has a couple other worthy candidates in Northern Illinois' Michael Turner, the nation's leading returning rusher (1,915 yards), and Miami of Ohio QB Ben Roethlisberger. But let's be realistic here. The only MAC players to receive serious consideration in recent years -- Randy Moss, Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich -- all have come from Marshall, the one league team that gets any kind of TV exposure during the regular season. Harris' best bet: Go off against Ohio State the fourth week of the season.
I am a diehard Syracuse fan. Please tell me this year will not be as miserable as last year. If the Orange stink up the joint again this year will Coach P finally be gone? Didn't he realize that McNabb was going to eventually leave? At least I have basketball to enjoy, right, Carmelo?
Poor Joe. You just know he was already looking forward to the 'Cuse coming to Georgia Tech every other year. As for the Orangemen's prospects for this, the last year of the Big East as we know it, I do think they'll be improved. How did their defense get so god awful in the first place? You used to always be able to count on Syracuse for defense. The key question is R.J. Anderson: Will he be the quarterback that led them to 10 wins two years ago or the one that got benched last fall? If it's more the former, and the defense gets better, the Orange should be back in the bowl mix, but not quite the level of Miami/Virginia Tech/Pittsburgh.
Just read the story about Colorado's Jeremy Bloom having to give up skiing for football. The article says that his situation was in violation of an NCAA ruling. Question: How does this situation differ from Texas' Cedric Benson, and in recent years Ricky Williams, who enjoyed paychecks from MLB teams while playing college football?
It's true, the NCAA allows players to earn money playing professional baseball without jeopardizing their eligibility. The difference in Bloom's case is he's seeking endorsement money, which the NCAA strictly prohibits. Never mind that skiing is an individual sport where there's no team to pay you, so your main source of income for training and equipment is sponsorships. Bloom tried exposing the double standard in court last year, to no avail, and ultimately had to choose between the two sports, at least for now.
You have what, 117 Division I football teams on your beat? I'm curious how you cover such a big beat. How much of your knowledge do you get from a) reading other writers or talking with them, b) watching football on television, c) seeing games live, d) watching practices live, e) interviewing coaches and players, f) reading media guides and other flack-produced products, g) other?
Interesting, I'd never before tried to quantify it. Let's give it a shot: a) -- That's a big one. There's no question that writers who cover a particular team or conference are extremely plugged in. b) Every weekend, every spare moment that I'm not doing c). d) Pretty much impossible on a national beat, other than a little bit in spring. e) What I spend all week doing between the games, as well as in the locker room afterward. f) Very, very little. g) We've yet to mention one major, major category: Telepathy. Finally, Michael Conrad of now-infamous Pensacola, Fla., wrote in to alert us about a new football juggernaut down his way. Pensacola seems to be the hotbed of all things unusual -- the demise of the Alabama's Mike Price, sharks being caught by the tail to save a little boy's arm and now the most dominant sports team perhaps in history. The Pensacola Power, in the National Women's Football Association, have never lost a regular season game in three years and have outscored their competition this season 439-10. Deserves some notice by you guys. Best of all, you don't have to worry about them going out and celebrating at Arety's Angels. That's it for this week, folks. Keep those football questions coming, but also next week, in honor of my aforementioned fallen fraternity, I'll accept and print your best tales of fraternity or sorority hi-jinks gone awry. Just two rules: It has to be outrageous, but you have to keep it PG-13. Adios. Stewart Mandel covers college sports for SI.com. To send a question or comment for Stewart's Mailbag, click here. |
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||||
